The International Printing Museum is a dynamic museum devoted to bringing the history of printing and books to life for diverse audiences. The Museum is home to one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive collections of antique printing machinery and graphic arts equipment. Our mission is to interpret and present the collection for a contemporary audience through demonstrations of working machinery, historic re-enactments, and hands-on workshops.

Since the museum’s founding in 1988, we have reached over 500,000 people through our programming. We regularly welcome visitors to the Museum to participate in tours and events, such as our annual Los Angeles Printers Fair, seasonal Krazy Kraft Day, quarterly Book Arts Patch Day for Girls, and bi-monthly Scout Merit Badge Day. Our staff visits sites across California via our Museum on Wheels program, the Museum’s innovative outreach program for schools, libraries, and other organizations.

The goal of the Museum is to teach visitors about the history of books and how innovations in printing helped shape the modern world. We are recognized worldwide for the size and scope of our collection, and for our innovative and creative approaches to sharing our collection with the immediate community and the world at large.

David Jacobson of Gutenberg Expositions, and collector Ernest A. Lindner, started the museum in 1988 to house the Lindner Collection of Antique Printing Machinery. The collection has grown since then with significant donations and acquisition under the leadership of the Museum’s Board of Trustees and Founding Curator and Executive Director, Mark Barbour.

From 1988 until 1997, the Printing Museum was located in the city of Buena Park. Following the acquisition of the Museum’s property by CalTrans in 1997, we moved to our present facility in Carson, California, twenty minutes south of downtown Los Angeles, in 1998. In February, 2001, the Board of Trustees of the International Printing Museum Foundation authorized and raised the necessary funds to acquire purchase the Carson property.

The International Printing Museum Foundation is recognized as a tax exempt, 501c3 public charity by the IRS. The museum supports itself in part with receipts from its activities and programs, but relies primarily on donations from individual and corporate donors. Contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.