State Capital Publishing Museum

The State Capital Publishing Museum is home to a dynamic collection of territorial and early statehood printing presses, bindery equipment, newspapers and publishing history. The building, built by Frank Hilton Greer, in 1902 housed the first newspaper in the Oklahoma Territory and the largest printing plant west of the Mississippi. History has it that Frank Greer hopped a freight train and came to Guthrie, in April of 1889 with little formal education, some printing experience and $29 his pocket. From that day forward Greer developed a politically powerful newspaper with the largest circulation in the Territory aided by instillation of the first Linotype in Oklahoma. The Linotype is a printing machine that produces a solid 'line of type.' Introduced about 1886, it was used for generations by newspapers and general printers. It is a one-man machine that allows much faster typesetting The machine revolutionized newspaper publishing, making it possible for a relatively small number of operators to set type for many pages on a daily basis.

Graspr | July 7, 2008

Tags:. .bindery. .linotype. .typesetting. .greer. .statehood