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South Street Seaport Museum

Where New York Begins.

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Printing History

Printing History

The printing history collection is built around a working fleet of printing presses, as well as a vast holding of printing equipment, printing types, photo-engravings, and hand cut wood blocks. This  collection preserves the tradition of small batch job printing in the 19th century, while keeping an open and active dialogue with contemporary practices of Printmaking and Graphic Design communities.

The nature of select items within the collection require that they be operated by trained staff in order to better preserve them. The staff at Bowne & Co. care for the working printing equipment in collaboration with the Collections Department.

Highlights include the Frederic Nelson Phillips “Tri-Arts” Collection which consists of decorative foundry type, for a total of 986 wooden boxes, containing 1200 fonts, ca. 1810-1910.


Washington Iron Hand Press, 1846
Columbian Printing Press, 1858
Electrotype "Honor Has Worn the Victory", ca. 1890
Damon and Peets specimen book, 1903
Buffum Automatic Card Press, n.d.
Stamp Kit, ca. 1910
The Kelsey Press Company specimen book, 1930-1940
The Kelsey Press Company specimen book, 1930-1940
Selection of printing types from the Frederic Nelson Phillips “Tri-Arts” Collection
Frederic Nelson Phillips “Tri-Arts” Collection booklet, 1966

Collections Online Portal

Browse a selection of Artwork, Artifacts and objects in our collection.

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Past Programs

Head over to our Past Programs page where you can find video content from all of our previous virtual programs.

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South Street Seaport Museum

12 Fulton Street
NY, NY 10038
(212) 748-8600

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