The Crandall Museum

As I spent time in this museum, I realized how wonderful it is that we have the knowledge, technology, and capabilities that we do. I cannot believe how tedious of a task it must have been for Guttenberg to come up with all of the little details of his work. I know he had to have been inspired to do what he did. As the tour went on, I gained a subtle, but strong appreciation for the countless hours of forming, setting, and replacing the type. After over 400 years, there were nearly no developments at all in printing. The wood work was changed in for iron, and other than that, there wasn’t much more. How could that be so? I really don’t know, but I suppose God had given His children enough to be able to start this important task.
One of the explanations that was the most fascinating to me was how things lined up perfectly for Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon to be printed in Palmyra, NY. Palmyra was by no means a large city. Sure it was a growing town, but it really wasn’t very large and it didn’t have all of the resources one could find in a larger city. Just a few years before Joseph and Oliver finished translating the Book of Mormon, the Erie Canal was opened. This allowed for E. B. Granden to ship in a half ton iron printing press right to his printing shop (the was located just a few hundred feet from the canal). With the press in place, it just so happened that a skilled book binder was in town as well. What an amazing miracle, to have a printing press (there was also a skilled type-setter), a book binder, and a business man willing to take on the publishing of the Book of Mormon. That really struck me.
The thing that really hit me though, was what printing in general has done for the progress of humanity. What if we couldn’t read this blog, or anything? There would have almost no literacy, and perhaps the dark ages would have remained darker longer. More than even all of the secular benefits of literacy, God’s children now had access to His words. They could think, reason, ponder, and grow on their own. They could communicate in new ways that were never available before. Now, the Book of Mormon could also be available to all those seeking salvation as well. How wonderful it is!