The Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum sent printing teams to the Manitowoc Farmers Market for four dates during the 2024 outdoor market season.

Each printing team brought a tiny press, ink, plenty of wood type, and customizable pre-printed posters.

Farmers' Market shoppers who visited the Hamilton printing booths were able to complete one of four phrases and print a customized poster to take with them.

Our four customizable posters each had a phrase that needed to be completed:

• “Happiness is a day spent …”
• “I am ...”
• “I believe in ...”
• “Stay ...”

Each visitor had the opportunity to hand-set their “complete-the-phrase” word or words in wood type.

Then, the wood type was inked up and printed to produce a personalized “make and take” poster. 

Printing with Farmers Market visitors was a great time! We loved sharing and connecting through the fun of letterpress printing. Bringing letterpress printing outside of the museum is at the heart of our mission to preserve history for creative use today. A big ‘thank you’ to everyone who came out to print with us; we hope you had fun too.