The Museum of Printing History is located in Houston, Texas and displays a dynamic collection of historical documents, fine art prints, and antique printing equipment. Artifacts in the collection range in time from humanity's earliest writing through the twenty-first century. The exhibitions document history from the origins of printing on Mesopotamian clay tablets around 3000 B.C., through pre-Gutenberg manuscript production. The collection reflects the beginning of printing in Europe with Gutenberg's invention of movable type, and illustrates printing of the Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment, and beyond. A visitor will find the Dharani Scroll, an 8th-century Japanese text which is commonly considered the first example of printing words onto paper; a page from William Caxton, the first printer of the English language; a Spanish-Nahuatl dictionary printed by Juan Pablos, the first printer in the Americas; Old Master woodcuts and engravings; and various other treasures. In addition, the Museum contains exhibit spaces devoted to American Colonial printed documents and examples of early Texas printing.


The Museum contains four rotating galleries which present original exhibitions upon a wide range of topics. They have recently mounted exhibitions on book forgery, pop-up books, and early African exploration; a collaboration with Houston's own John Lienhard; and the work of artists from Edward Gorey to Marc Chagall. The shows frequently depict subjects with local interest, including promotional posters from Houston's great 1970's rock venue, Liberty Hall, and a retrospective of our city's rich heritage of newspaper reporting and printing.


The Museum of Printing History was founded in 1979 by Raoul Beasley, Vernon P. Hearn, Don Piercy, and J. V. Burnham, four printers with passions for preserving their vast collections and sharing them with the community. It was chartered in 1981 and had its official opening in 1982 with Dr. Hans Halaby, Director of the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany, cutting the ribbon. They offer guided tours and workshops on letterpress printing, bookbinding, papermaking, lithography, and related arts.



The mission of the Museum is to promote, preserve, and share the knowledge of printed communication and art as the greatest contributors to the development of the civilized world and the continuing advancement of freedom and literacy.