Question about old printing press

[buelligan]

So I spent some time this fall in Baltimore Maryland because of a conference my wife attended. While she was at the conference me and my boy spent the day exploring the area. On one of our last days there we stopped by the Baltimore museum of industry, while enjoying the museum and taking pictures I took a picture of this printing press but somehow neglected to get a picture of any plaque associated with it so I could learn more about it. I've never seen a press before that used what appears to be stone tablets to print off of. Anybody know anything about this style of press?

 

[LizzieMaine]

So I spent some time this fall in Baltimore Maryland because of a conference my wife attended. While she was at the conference me and my boy spent the day exploring the area. On one of our last days there we stopped by the Baltimore museum of industry, while enjoying the museum and taking pictures I took a picture of this printing press but somehow neglected to get a picture of any plaque associated with it so I could learn more about it. I've never seen a press before that used what appears to be stone tablets to print off of. Anybody know anything about this style of press?

That's a lithography press, used for making fine art prints. They used an acid process to etch the design into the surface of a limestone slab, which allowed the reproduction of extremely fine detail. The famous Currier and Ives prints were made on a press like this.

 

[buelligan]

Thanks, I was so busy keeping a curious 5 year old from getting in trouble that I didn't even notice the press until I was downloading them on my computer. It seems like overkill since that one plate looks like an old add page from a newspaper. Would have loved to have had an opportunity to see it at work.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Thanks, I was so busy keeping a curious 5 year old from getting in trouble that I didn't even notice the press until I was downloading them on my computer. It seems like overkill since that one plate looks like an old add page from a newspaper. Would have loved to have had an opportunity to see it at work.

Litho was also used for color printing -- it was cheaper and easier than zinc engravings, so a lot of 19th and early 20th century color material like circus posters, handbills, and things like that came off a litho press.