Breaking News: Watch the Fuck Out, Wisconsin!

Because I’m heading into town on August 31st for a two week stay in beautiful Two Rivers. That’s right, my letterpress dreams are about to be realized at the amazingly wonderful Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum!

Do I need to back up at all? I know I mentioned Hamilton in my post about my road trip and then, sadly, I dropped the ball and never blogged about it. Well guys, I went to Hamilton and I fell in love.

My sister and I arrived in Two Rivers after 16 hours of driving and a less than pleasant night in Chicago, but our spirits were high once we saw our hotel’s proximity to Lake Michigan. Though Kel has no interest in type or printing, she was a trooper and stuck it out for our nearly two hour visit to Hamilton, which I suspect was possible thanks to the promise of cheese curds for lunch.

The type museum is housed in a portion of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company compound and the facade boasts large blocks of what I suppose is not actually wood type, but appears to be. Manning the desk was Jim Moran, a friendly gentleman whose love for printing probably trumps my own. I spent an hour and a half wandering around gasping in wonder and geeking out with him over anything and everything – including his archival process. When I realized that Kel was probably bored to tears, I wrapped up my visit, but not until I became a member of the museum.

Jim offered us some suggestions on places to eat and things to do while in Two Rivers and told me I’d have to come back to use my membership for discounted access to Hamilton’s press room. I left with my head full of letterpress daydreams and spent the rest of my time in Two Rivers fighting the magnetic pull that the museum most certainly had on me.

The membership to the museum included a digital replica of a wood typeface, and when I made it back to Philadelphia I received the email from Jim containing the file. He mentioned how nice it had been to spend time chatting with a kindred spirit and wished me well. Being the awkward but endearing young lady that I am I sent him a gushing response thanking him for his time and saying, “I feel like the next time I come I’ll have to spend a month in Two Rivers, and then just spend every day perusing your type. Honestly, I would love to do that, and I have the free time, so if you’d have any interest in apprenticing me for a month or so, I would do everything I could to get back there,” and then later acknowledging what a geeky fangirl I felt like for even suggesting such a thing.

As it turns out it really is true that it never hurts to ask, because this opened up a dialogue between Jim and myself hashing out the details of an apprenticeship. When I sent the initial email I was so embarrassed and terrified and expecting to get literally no response, so this exchange came as quite a relief.

Last Monday I received the official email from Jim accepting me to apprentice for two weeks in September at the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum. While the museum has seen many visiting artists and their students for instructional sessions, this is Hamilton’s first foray into apprenticeship, and I couldn’t possibly be more elated to be the lady to hold the honor.

In just under a month I will board a plane for the first time in nearly 10 years and take off for two weeks of intensive printing and archiving in sleepy, beautiful Two Rivers. I’m excited and anxious and a little in awe of my luck. In preparation I’m reading General Printing: An Illustrated Guide to Letterpress Printing and Ellen Lupton’s Thinking with Type, plus Bill Bryson’s The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America. I’m creating a list of things to see which so far includes only the Bernard Schwartz House and a repeat trip to the Historic Washington House for an ice cream sundae.