TOUR OF HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE AND HOUSTON PRINTING MUSEUM Thursday, January 15, 2015 by Allyn Stott Our January trip took us to two Houston Museums. Our first stop was at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. We arrived at the museum just after 9:30 and were delayed by a computer access problem with purchasing the tickets. Fortunately our guide took the group to the Ancient Egypt displays on the third floor while the ticket problem was resolved. The tour was very different from my previous trips to the museum. Our guide knew so much about ancient Egypt that it seemed that he lived way back then! Even though tours are relatively expensive for families, I will consider them on future trips. We were supposed to have two one hour tours, but since our group had sixteen, the museum consolidated the two tours into one two hour tour. After about an hour, our tour guide took us to the first floor Paleontology exhibit. Our guide was also very knowledgeable on the Dinosaurs. The Dinosaurs tour followed the exhibits in a historical period time frame. Forty years ago the museum had one large Dinosaur and two of three smaller ones. Today there are many, perhaps twenty five or more large dinosaurs. A few decades ago the museum was an excellent place for children to visit and learn about many topics. Today, it is far more than excellent; it is an exceptional museum and I am sure many of our explorers will return. Bill Ledbetter & Suzy Kees viewing the dinosaur exhibit
One item that caught my attention in the Egypt exhibits were a display of 10 small gold objects that seemed out of place. Our guide advised us that they were gold toe caps that were worn by the elite women. Shirley Sutton with Aztec sculpture Egyptian Sarcophagus Unfortunately, our tour was very limited as the museum has three floors of exhibits, a basement of administrative and educational function, the outside astronomy exhibit, the Burke Baker Planetarium, the I-Max Theatre and the Cockrell Butterfly Center plus the gift shop. The museum is really an excellent place to visit. Due to a time constraint, we had lunch at the museum. It was a quick service an enabled us to stay on schedule for our second stop at the Houston Printing Museum. Once again, their exhibits were interesting but not as old as the HMNS. As interesting as the exhibits were, our guide made a good tour into an excellent tour. Our guide, Charles, has worked in printing since the early 1960 s with most of his time being at the print shop that migrated to a museum. Our tour started with a working replica of the Gutenberg Press. His printing press was developed in about 1450 and he was commissioned to produce a copy of the bible. Before this time, to copy a bible would take a group of several scribes a few years to hand copy. However, their copies were not always accurate. Human nature had something to do with that. With his press, and sufficient number of each letter cast in metal, he could set the type for one page and from that one set could produce many copies. The faster time to print a bible was reduced to months instead of years. Gutenberg s press is generally credited at the point in time that printed communications became practical. Replica of the Gutenberg Press
Guide Charles helps explorers Jim Spencer, Jeff Stagg & Margaret Overgoner print on the Gutenberg press replica The museum had a working press from 1850 s which was basically an enhanced version of the Gutenberg press. On this press we were able to print a few copies of the Declaration of Independence. Again, the time to set up a page letter by letter still took too long for mass printing jobs.
Shirley Sutton, Cheryl Ledbetter, Janice Stacy, and Allyn Stott print on the 1850s press
Suzy Kees at a Lineotype Machine In the late 1800 s, the Linotype machine was invented that changed printing forever. With this machine, the operator can set type at a typing speed and create metal plates that were one line of type that then could be loaded into a printing machine. This is the machine that caused the print business to explode as large volumes of printed materials could be setup quickly and, with faster printers, greater volumes of materials could be printed. With this machine, the time to print a Gutenberg bible was now days for the first copy and a few additional hours for multiple copies. There were many enhancements to printing after the linotype machine that involve color, photographic plates, typewriters, Xerox copy machines, and digital printing. In the past 500 years, we progressed from a manual page of type setup and printing to the digital high speed printing of today. The future of printing is beyond my pay grade. Printing tools through the ages
The last part of the tour included a video presentation of the history of written communication. The video was so exceptional that many of the explorers wanted to see it again in the future. Explorers learning fine points of early printing One additional highlight of the trip was that at the entrance of the museum, there was a display of Houston based printing shops. It had Jim and Rita Spencer s name and their previous Kwik- Copy shop. Our trip ended with a group picture at the bus pickup location., Two museums in one day may have been an information overload, but we know where to go for additional information and a fun filled day. Explorers group picture at the end of the trip