Upon entering, we were greeted by two of the happiest Italian men in the world. They welcomed us in, joking and laughing with us like we were old friends. They had a passion for paper, and they showed us how they made their beautiful paper.
One turned up the Italian opera music playing in the tiny shop and told us how the music touched him with tears in his eyes. When I asked the other man what his favorite color was, he looked at his golden shirt, his tan pants, and the yellow shelves of his store and told us that yellow was his favorite color—because it reminded him of the sun, and the sun reminded him of his childhood days, and his childhood days reminded him of his boat.
The feeling these men created in the store was overwhelmingly joyful, and I left almost in tears because I was so happy.
I felt some of this passion for paper again as I visited the Crandall Printing Museum in Provo.
Everyone should go visit this museum. This small colonial-inspired house is full of treasures for your mind and your heart. Here I met three more men who had a passion for paper, or rather, a passion for the press.
They showed their handmade Gutenberg press and explained the amazing innovations of Johannes Gutenberg and the development of the press. They allowed visitors to feel the Latin letters placed on the press in the same way they were six hundred years ago, words that changed every day lives. In 50 years after its creation, the Gutenberg press produced 20 million books of the Bible.
After learning about the Gutenberg press, we were brought to a press created after the one in New England that Ben Franklin printed revolutionary documents on. These documents rallied the American cause and because of the printed word, we were able to have our freedom.
Then we were brought to a printing press built after the Grandin press in New York. This type of press produced the Book of Mormon, and what a miracle that book was. Considering the small amount of printing presses in the country, it is strange that there would be one in the tiny township of Palmyra, New York. What had made it possible to bring this heavy machinery to this place? If it had been brought on horse and wagon it would have been impossibly expensive. But because Palmyra was situated near to the newly built Eerie Canal, the machinery could be hauled across the river to Palmyra.
And the number of books. E.B. Grandin must have been incredulous when Joseph Smith asked him to print 5,000 books. The first printing of the Bible was contracted by the Catholic Church for a mere 180 copies, incidentally. 5,000 books was a very large number for a small place.
What a miracle it was that these books were finished in such a short amount of time. To bind that many books would have taken over 2 years, and this estimate is by a modern-day printer. Yet, the Book of Mormon was bound in 7 months. This would have required the boys in the print shop to print 2 sheets per minute, setting type for 11 hours a day. It would have required the printers to pull the press handle 5,000 times for each of the 37 stacks of paper it required for each book—that is 185,000 pulls to create that amount of books.
The Book of Mormon is a miracle.
The press is what made it possible for the word of God to go forth.
It was the medium that allowed the Gutenberg Bible, the word of God, to go forth to everyday people. It was the medium that allowed words of freedom and liberty to spread through America. It was the medium that allowed the word of God to go forth again and in its fullness and power through the Book of Mormon.
This is the real power of the press.
In Florence I felt that excitement and pleasure these men found in paper and paper making. The Crandall Museum also contained that excitement, but also contained the power, not of the paper, but of the words pressed upon that paper that changed people’s lives.
It is no wonder these men have such a love and a passion for the press. On paper are written words that have changed their lives, personally.
They are words that have changed my life.
And yours.
Crandall Printing Museum
275 East Center Street
Provo, Utah
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