Drukkerijmuseum

The Drukkerijmuseum, the printing museum, is one of Meppel's most distinctive small museums. Meppel is a canal town in the south-west of Drenthe, and printing and publishing were long part of its commercial life, so a museum devoted to the craft sits comfortably in the town. It stands beside the water near the old centre, on a street called Kleine Oever, one of the pleasant canalside streets that make up the town's historic core.

The subject of the museum is how people have stored and shared words and images. It begins with the oldest forms of communication, from marks and symbols to the development of writing and the alphabet, and moves on to the invention of movable metal type in Europe in the fifteenth century, which transformed how knowledge spread. From there the story passes through the centuries of hand-set type, hand-operated presses, the arrival of powered machines and the industrial printing of newspapers and books. Many Dutch towns had a local printer who produced everything from posters and visiting cards to newspapers, and the museum recalls that everyday world.

The core of the collection is a set of real machines. Presses of different types stand in working order, and volunteers who know the trade demonstrate them, setting type by hand from cases of lead letters and pulling prints. Seeing a page of text emerge from a press is much more vivid than reading about it. Typesetting equipment, cases of type, tools and examples of printed work show how much patient skill the old craft demanded, with every letter placed back to front by hand.

Children are well catered for. There are activities in which they can print something themselves, try their hand at papermaking, or follow a trail around the museum, and the hands-on approach makes the museum good for families as well as for adults with an interest in technology or design. Guided explanations are available when volunteers are present, and the staff are generally glad to answer questions.

The museum is small, so a visit takes about an hour. Opening days are limited and prices vary, so check the current details before going. It pairs well with a walk along the Meppel canals, a look at the Meppeler Toren and, on market days, a stroll through the town centre, or with a trip to the lakes and villages of the Weerribben-Wieden nearby.