Historical collections, exhibitions, museums, and awards
An outstanding collection of typesetting machines, presses and other
equipment, most of it in working order, is at the Printers' Workshop,
Ferrymead Historic Park, in Christchurch. The Bedplate Press Printing
Museum Society at Silverstream, Hutt Valley, Wellington, is
well-organised, and hopes that its museum will in time become the
National Printing Museum. There is a significant collection at the
Museum of Transport and Technology, at Western Springs in Auckland, in
their 'Printshop' display. Local provincial museums, as for example the
Manawatu Museum, Palmerston North, have smaller but good collections of
old printing equipment, even if not all manage to provide significant
documentation. The 'bibliographical presses' at Otago University in
Dunedin (the Bibliography Room), Victoria University of Wellington (the
Wai-te-ata Press, established by D.F. McKenzie in 1962 and revived in
1995 under the aegis of the Faculty of Arts, through a Research
Fellowship), and the Holloway Press, at the Tamaki Campus of the
University of Auckland, all own and use historical materials to
demonstrate the traditional techniques.
Exhibitions have
included 'The Printer's Art: An Exhibition of Printing', which opened in
Wellington on 25 March 1937, and travelled to three other centres. It
included over 650 items, mainly posters, loaned by the British
Federation of Master Printers ( Printing Prestige
, 7 (September 1937): pp.5-10). In November 1940, 'quintennial
celebration of printing' exhibitions, public lectures, etc., in honour
of Gutenberg, and his successors, took place in the four main centres (
Printing Prestige , 16 (December 1940):
pp.13-15). An exhibition mounted in 1956 by the Auckland public
libraries is remembered by its printed catalogue, Printed in Auckland: Book Production and Design Past and
Present . In January 1990, an 'Art of the Book' exhibition, in the
New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts Gallery, Wellington, had a valuable
catalogue, Art of the Book , compiled by Rowan
Gibbs, which was published by the Book Arts Society, typeset by John
Denny (Püriri Press) and printed and bound by Alan Loney. In
1996-97, 'Making an Impression: A History of Government Printing' has
been on display at the National Archives, Wellington, accompanied by a
video showing workers and machines in action, and a brochure with a
potted history of the Government Printing Office.