Village Craftspeople-Showcasing A Dying Art

One of the many wonderful things about the village are all of the items that our craftspeople hand make.

Along with enabling the public to see what is, in many cases, a dying art, our village crafts people also provide us with things that we use in the village such as yarn for weaving, bowls for our cooks, buckets for our brewery and vinegar and brooms for our many residences. All of these items are avaliable for purchase in our store or for a suggested donation at the actual craftsman's village location.

This past Thursday as I was walking the village I stopped into the blacksmith's shop. He was making handles for 2 cast iron cooking pots that will be used by our village cooks.

The potter was making saucers and when I admired his work and inquired about a flower pot that I have seen in many village locations, he offered to make me one for purchase. A flower pot handmade especially for me! You don't get that most places.

We also have crafts people making brooms, coopers making buckets, tinsmiths who make a variety of kitchen implements, blacksmiths making wall hooks and S-hooks as well as hand forged nails.

A real deal are the broadsides printed at the print office.

I recently brought home one that featured a catalog of "Apple Trees Cultivated And For Sale" at a nursery by my childhood home as well as a sign advertising for a "Smart Girl".

This is possibly the cheapest "antique " art that you can find at $.50 each or 3 for $1.

19th Century Printing Press in the Village

The Village also boasts a working printing office, with printers who typeset and print the same way it was done in the 19th century.

A print shop the size the museum has, would have employed 3- 4 people. One would have been the owner, with 2 apprentices and very often, a journeyman printer who would travel from town to town spending 3-4 months at a time in different shops. The apprentices would be fed and housed by the printer and his family but would receive no remuneration from the printer, as learning the craft was considered payment for his services. In 1840 a good printer would have been able to set about 250 words per hour.

The printer's equipment in the village consists of a mid 19th-century Washington type press, many cases of antique typefaces and woodcuts, a proof press and many other early items obtained from area print shops.

Although movable type revolutionized the world, printmaking was still a painstaking process. Hand setting was used up until about 1890. The 30 rules for the Romulus Female Seminary that were produced by our printing office, represent 12-16 hours of work on the part of the printer for the typesetting alone. Add to that the fact that with chilly weather, the type takes a while to warm up, and the materials produced in our village become artwork as well as functional pieces. We create and print between 40-50 pieces material in the Printing Office per year.

1/2 of the 30 typeset rules

Old News

Since copyright laws were not what they are today, a printer publishing a newspaper would subscribe to various other newspapers across the country and around the world and re-print articles that they found interesting or relevant. An example of a Rochester newspaper that hangs in the printing office dated November has stories in it that date back to June of the same year.

Hot off The Press!

Take a look at some of the work our printers have been doing for the
W. Grieve Brewery.

Each piece was hand set here in the village by one of our talented printers using antique type and printing press.