— Courtesy Sue MacDonald and Cincinnati Type & Print Museum
If you search Wikipedia for Johannes Gutenberg’s actual birth date, the result is a rather non-specific “around 1398-1400.”
The Cincinnati Type & Print Museum is sticking with “around 1400” to celebrate Gutenberg’s 625th birthday in June by inviting the public to use and observe a rarity among museums in the United States: a hand-built, wooden replica of the Gutenberg press that simplified and spread the printing and distribution of literature and books around the world.
Get a little inky June 24-25 and 28
The celebration of Gutenberg’s 625th birthday will take place Tuesday-Wednesday, June 24-25, and Saturday, June 28, at the Cincinnati Type & Print Museum in Lower Price Hill.
In a museum that’s always free, visitors can print a page of the Bible on the Gutenberg replica that now graces the museum’s lobby, among other printing-related activities. The Bible was the first book that Gutenberg printed and sold.
CTPM’s objectives reach beyond historic preservation, offering job and skills training to second-chance individuals seeking employment opportunities in the art, craft and technology of printing and other fields. Candidates include people emerging from welfare, prison, addiction and other social challenges; employable individuals with physical or developmental disabilities; and high school students exploring non-college career options. As the museum’s job training program expands in 2025, so does its collection.
And CPTM is the first non-commercial graphic arts organization to receive the William Maxwell Award from the Graphic Media Alliance of the Southern Ohio region. Given in honor of William Maxwell, Cincinnati’s first printer, the award recognizes a forward-thinking commercial printer or business whose work contributes to the community and the Queen City’s commercial printing industry.
Unique equipment, niche museum
Cincinnati’s Gutenberg press is unique among the 10 or so known replicas in U.S. museums: It is the only one available for visitors to use under museum staff supervision. Replica presses at other museums tend to be displayed behind glass or are not accessible to the public. Founder/Director Gary Walton acquired the press in late October 2024 from a shuttered Houston museum.
“In the first few months that we’ve displayed the Gutenberg press, we’ve noticed that it profoundly brings to life the impact of printing and the beginning of the mass production of books and learning materials,” Walton said. “It’s exciting to see these ‘Aha!’ moments among teachers, artists, historians, museum curators, authors, media professionals and other visitors.
“Our antique equipment and printing processes also demonstrate the power of printing to students and other visitors,” he added. “School children often peck away on our manual typewriter by saying, ‘Look! It’s just like my computer keyboard!”… and we have to remind them that the typewriter and other printing equipment came first.”
Some people assume Gutenberg invented the printing press, but printing had been around for thousands of years, said Walton, who taught printing technology at Cincinnati State for 35 years, retired in 2011 and opened the museum in 2016.
“Gutenberg’s genius was the invention of moveable type, which enabled a much faster rate of printing because individual metal letters could be set, printed, disassembled and re-used for the next job.”
Historians note that before Gutenberg’s invention in 1450, only about 5,000 books were thought to exist throughout Europe. Twenty-five years later, that number grew to 5 million.
Cincinnati’s place in printing history
During the growth of the U.S. in the 1800s and early 1900s, Cincinnati ranked second worldwide behind New York City as a printing powerhouse, Walton said. Printing was powered by German immigrants who settled here, aided by local industries that manufactured printing equipment, ink and paper products.
Gutenberg’s 625th birthday
June 24, 25 & 28, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Cincinnati Type & Print Museum, 2307 W. Eighth St., Cincinnati
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