The "Beisselology: My Most Memoriable Trade Of The Ephrata Cloister" Story

The original Brother's House, known as Bethania, was a
beautiful building, but was later destroyed due to
neglect.  It held the first print shop.

It was an ordinary day.  Having the best time looking around the print shop that may or may not have been the original print shop of the Ephrata Cloister which was first established in 1732.  I have read that the first print shop may have been housed in what was called the Brother's House Complex which was erected in the mid-1740s.  

This is the print office that I visited at the Ephrata Cloisters.

I have also read that the Brother- hood, celibate male members of the Cloister, operated a printing press for nearly fifty years beginning about 1743.  Their most ambitious work was the translation and publication of the 1,500 page Martyr's Mirror for the Mennonites.  This publication was the largest book ever printed in colonial America.  

The Martyr's Mirror on display. 

It was the history of the early Christian and Anabaptist martyrs from the time of Christ until 1660 who died in defense of their faith.  Wow, printed right here in this little town known as Ephrata. The Printing Office of the Brotherhood was first established in a building on Mount Zion and then moved to Bethania next door.  This entire complex was torn down in 1908, so I assume that the reproduction that I am standing in was not used for printing in the original Cloister.  

This is what I believe to be a copy of the Martyr's Mirror.

Doesn't matter, for I can still smell the printer's ink that has to remain faintly on drawer after wooden drawer of type cases that were used by men dressed in long white robes.  Can't imagine they didn't get that printer's ink on those beautiful white robes from time to time.  The Office printed about 125 different works during its lifetime.  

The printing press at the Cloisters. Totally hand-operated.

They made their own paper and ink in mills along the nearby Cocalico Creek.  The name of the creek means "snake dens" and  comes from the Lenape Indians, a Pennsyl- vania tribe. The printing paper was made with linen rag and was a high quality paper.  The ink was made from linseed oil.  That oil-based ink smell is something a printer never forgets.  

Here you can see the ink roller ready for action.

I still pick up everything printed to see if I can identify the type of ink used based on the smell.  The jobs they printed were primarily for themselves, but they also did work for Lutherans as well as the Mennonites.  They purchased their presses, type and other materials from Germany. They had the second German printing press in the American colonies.  The reproduction press I'm looking at was constructed entirely by hand following drawings and plans supplied by the Smithsonian Institute.  

This is the wooden type cabinet with many drawers of
metal type housed in their type cases.

It resembles a Gutenberg style press used in the 15th to 19th century.  The wooden type cabinet, wooden drawers, metal chases, wooden furniture,  wooden quoins and composing stone bring back so many memories of when I taught printing in high school using the same instruments and equipment. I felt as if I was standing in my old print shop!  Enough of that for now, since I also had a chance to stop at the carpenter's house, bake house, weaver's house and physician's house.  They all were neat stops, but not half as memorable as the printer's office.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

This shows the chase holding the metal type in place, ready for the press.  To the left are pieces of wood called furniture that hold the type in place.  The wooden wedges are known as quoins.

I do realize that there is more too see than just the print shop.  This is the interior of the Small Bake House.  

This is the Carpenter's House.

The interior of the weaver's house is seen in this photograph.  

Make sure you click on this photo to enlarge it.  The panorama photo shows, from left to right, The Householder exhibit, the stable, the Sister's House and Meeting House (tomorrow's story),  Conrad Beissel's House, The Print Office and the Carpenter's House.