One-third scale model of early printing press

     One of the unique items on display in the Fowler Bible Collection is a one-third scale model of an early printing press. The objective of including this in the exhibit is to demonstrate what a time-consuming process it was to print early Bibles one sheet at a time, and then to have to collate the pages, sew them together, and prepare the cover for each volume. The old wooden press is not a functional press, but it is set up to print the first page of the Gospel of Matthew from the Tyndale New Testament, the first of the printed English scriptures.

     Jim Fowler often dresses in his Gutenberg costume during the exhibits to demonstrate how early bibles were printed on the wooden printing press.