2024 was a year where we really began to see the impact of our many different streams of outreach, from general openings to working with students. Here are some of the highlights.
Visitor numbers
We saw a total of 4309 visitors from April – October, with only 11 days not counted.
Breakdown of numbers
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April 451 (two days not recorded)
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May 541 (three days not recorded)
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June 693 (one day not recorded)
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July 603 (one day not recorded)
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August 831 (two days not recorded, one day closed because of high winds)
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September 715
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October 475 (two days not recorded)
Type Study Day
The Museum held a Type Study Day on 16 August, as a follow-up to the successful Study Day held in May. Six people signed up for the day, one coming from Denmark specially to attend.
Chair of Trustees Paul Nash ran a series of talks and demonstrations in the Loft Gallery at Blickling, and in the Museum, covering the origins of European printers’ type, the development of type in the hand-press era (around 1450–1850), the mechanization of typesetting and typecasting in the nineteenth-century, and the developments in type since 1900, from hot-metal to photosetting and digital type. Nash demonstrated hand type-casting as it had been practiced in Europe for five hundred years, and also cast a piece starting from scratch (with a blank matrix), using a theoretical method of early type-production in which the matrix was not struck with a punch but engraved, and the type was ‘dressed’ differently to allow the technology to work (which it almost did).
There were two guest-speakers. Jack Norfolk explained his alternative theory of early type-production in which type was made not from metal, but from clay, formed in a clay mould after a wooden patrix; the type was allowed to dry before being dressed and then fired, before it could be used in the same way as metal type. Clay type would not have such a long life as metal type, but would have been easier and cheaper to make, and lighter to store.
The day concluded with Jeremy Tankard, a contemporary type-designer, explaining his design philosophy and the way in which he created his designs digitally, inspired by (and sometimes reacting against) historical models. Refreshments were provided by Jules Allen, who also kept a photographic record of the Day, partly for use on social media.
The event was a success and raised £480 for the Museum. It is hoped to run it again in 2025, although Nash said he would try not to cram quite so much into a single day next time.
Some of Jules’s photos are available on Facebook, here.