Since 1854, Greenville has had a local newspaper, often printed weekly or only when there was enough news to print. On the walls are displayed many of those early newspapers printed in Greenville. “The Montcalm Reflector”, is the first paper on the wall to the left and is the fourth edition of that early 1854 paper. The next paper is a sample of the “Dansk Folkblad” which was printed in Greenville from 1895-1898 and was the only Michigan paper ever printed in Danish. The other newspapers displayed span the time from 1901- 1975.

The Gordon Job Press in our Print Shop was invented by George P. Gordon, and was manufactured in 1908.

The Gordon job press was one of the first truly American contributions to printing technology. It was a versatile press, meant to be operated by a pressman working on small jobs, rather than long print runs or newspaper work or jobs that required full size sheets of paper. Some of the print blocks seen on the table and windowsill could have been used for handbills, tickets, programs, business forms. advertising and other such print jobs.

To the left of the press, on the floor, you can see the long canister of black ink. There are also several type holders. The pressman would have to put the type, or alphabet letters, numbers, punctuation marks, etc. in type holders backwards so that when he turned it over, it would print the correct way. When the printing job was finished he would have to take the type out of the holders again and put each one back in the correct little alphabetical bin ready for the next job. The press operator wore an apron to try to keep his clothes clean since operating the press was a dirty business!