Ink smells amazing. I know, I know, somebody’s lost it. But after taking a letterpress class at the Richmond Visual Arts Center (taught by one of my talented day-job coworkers!), I came to love the process and smell of letterpress work. And Luke came to love the results – you can get as nerdy as you want! Which is probably why we both sat up and paid attention when we stumbled – almost literally – across the Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum while driving the Niagara Parkway. We’d spent a bit of time photographing and enjoying Queenston Heights Park, and accidentally noticed the Mackenzie Printery on Google Maps. Quick Googling had me so excited that we had no choice but to stop.
Boyfriend Perspective: When she says we had no choice, she means I (me, Luke) had no choice. Girl gets cracked out on ink fumes and creativity. Kidding. I think.
No regrets, guys!
The history of William Lyon Mackenzie (the guy whose house we were standing in)
When we walked in, two docents greeted us enthusiastically (we later found out that they tend to employ local history students, which we both thought was super cool).
Once we’d paid for our tours, one of the docents, Jenna, started to teach us about William Lyon Mackenzie.
His only near equivalent in US history might be Ben Franklin – eccentric, extremely politically active, literarily inclined, and not shy about sharing his views on, well, everything. Mackenzie started his own newspaper printed in the house we stood in, because he had grown tired of the censored, government-sanctioned news run in the only paper available to the Canadian people of the time. He did a bunch of other stuff too, like starting his own revolution shortly after the US Revolution. (Spoiler: it didn’t go so well. The rebels may have gotten too tipsy at a local bar and forgotten their fight. Ehhh.)
Boyfriend Perspective: The wax figure of this guy will wig… yes, wig… you out. It’s one of those “Is he looking at me? Also why is he so short?” scenarios.
Yes, so, through all this, Mackenzie had health issues that meant he didn’t have much, if any hair, on his head or face. And… the wig/toupee he chose actually had a full beard attached to it. According to Jenna, when this crazy Scotsman’s temper rose, he would actually THROW HIS BEARD-SLASH-WIG. Such passion.
While he may have been a bit odd, and his own political career may have been, uh, fraught, one of Mackenzie’s grandsons notably went on to become one of Canada’s most significant prime ministers in 1926, William Lyon Mackenzie King.
Touring the Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum
Learning about Mackenzie’s obsession with politics and getting his opinions heard in writing comprised the first part of the tour. As we walked through the front room of the house-slash-museum – which, to be clear, is packed with letter cases and presses – Jenna started putting on gloves. She let us know that part of the tour included getting a souvenir made on one of the old presses. STOKED.
Boyfriend Perspective: I helped her with the heavy lifting. Strong man, beat chest, make art!
As a result, we got our own contracts, indenturing us into printing service. Super cool ‘cause they’re not valid, of course 😉
In the next room, Jenna also made us a couple of bookmarks on a smallish Platen press as she educated us. And then, the tour had ended. We were invited to stick around for any other pictures we might want, and also took a few minutes to peruse the shelves of letterpress art made by the team of docents. The whole tour only took about 45 minutes, but it felt like it absolutely flew by.
Notable printing presses and printing memorabilia at the Mackenzie Printery
One of the coolest parts of this museum has to be that this whole house is PACKED with presses and printing paraphernalia. While we have a passing familiarity with Platen presses and the like, what we had no idea about was the Louis Roy Press. This sits within line of sight of a docent at all times, because it’s the oldest printing press in Canada and one of only 7 wooden presses like it left in the world. Gorgeous. Needless to say, NO TOUCHING.
In the front room sits the press Jenna helped us print our contracts on: the Albion press. Made in the early 1800s, it was one of the first iron printing press models and it helped make printing even faster and more reliable, despite still requiring two technicians to operate.
The back room houses an impressive selection of “furniture” (the printing term for the wooden shims that help keep set type snug and still when it’s being printed), a few Platen and other more modern presses, and an actual, operational linotype.
Extremely complicated and able to accommodate VERY print high volumes, linotypes sat in every newspaper printing house for much of the 20th century. Once they became outmoded, most of them ended up hauled away or left to rot. To find one in working order is surprisingly rare, considering they started phasing out in the 1970s! Fortunately, a few of the technicians who used to operate them for the local paper still come by the museum and, perhaps once a year or so, fire the old girl up and put a few prints through. It happens so rarely because the machines use lead to function, and special (and not inexpensive) cleaning procedures are needed to make sure the museum remains safe for the public after it runs.
Would we visit the Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum again?
ABSOLUTELY. It seems like it might be a one-trick pony, but you’re also talking to the girl who gets cracked out on creativity and the smell of ink. And something tells us both that you’ll see or learn something new on every single visit.
Practical information to visit the Mackenzie Printery
- Address: 1 Queenston St, Queenston, ON L0S 1L0 (literally a 1 minute drive from the Brock Monument)
- Free parking onsite
- Hours: Open weekends from 10am-5pm, closed during the week (May-October)
- Admission: $6.25 CAD per adult
- Accessibility: not listed, though we imagine it might be difficult to navigate a wheelchair between some of the presses, and up the front stairs.
- Websites:
The written word has power… so write this down for later!
This Seat’s Taken interview series: Jackie & Justin of Life of Doing
