Book of Mormon Printing Press – Meet the Mormons

This is a two-part post that I’ve entitled “Book of Mormon Printing Press – Meet the Mormons”. Earlier this year, we went to Palmyra New York to see early Mormon history. I’d like to show a few pictures and a video about that trip and the very complicated process of typesetting and printing the first Book of Mormon. Before I show you a video of the printing press of the original Book of Mormon, I’d like to first discuss is a movie I recently saw entitled “Meet the Mormons” – a very good and inspiring movie.

Meet the Mormons

I’m a Mormon. The movie showcases the lives of 5 Mormon families. What I love about the movie is that it is so real and down-to-earth and really shows what Mormon families are like. It turns out we’re like most people who have challenges, sometimes struggle, and yet our faith helps us through it all and it knits us together. I strongly suggest you check out the movie. Go see Meet the Mormons.

Visiting The Book of Mormon Printing Press

During Spring Break of 2014 while we were living in Nashville, we decided to hit a few of the Mormon Church History Sites. We went to Palmyra New York and visited the E.B. Grandin building, the place where the original Book of Mormon was printed. There, we learned about the fascinating process of typesetting and how complicated it was to print the first Book of Mormon.

I didn’t know much about typesetting before this trip, but I now have such a respect for the original printers and how much work they went through so that the rest of us can have the blessing of books in general. I’m going to share several photos from that visit to the printing press – I’ll do my best with the labels since I don’t remember what the tools were called or what they were used for.

This was a press to keep the pages glued together:

This was leather used for the book front and back covers:

This is where the typesetting tiles would go into:

These were the tiles being prepared for typesetting:

These are ink balls for typesetting:

Print Proof of Book of Mormon:

Gluing the pages of the Book of Mormon:

This is a plane used to trip the edges of the Book of Mormon:

Here’s another press that glues the pages together:

This is where they stamped a gold trim on the pages of the Book of Mormon:

Another stamping tool for Book of Mormon:

Large press to squeeze the pages of Book of Mormon together:

Below is a short video showing how the original Book of Mormon was created back in the 1800’s: