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Melbourne Museum of Printing Our Origins as a Typefoundry |
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Australian Type Company, founded as late as 1977, established a comprehensive collection of printing presses, typesetting machines, types and other print-related artefacts in addition to its Monotype-based typecasting machines and matrix collection.
In due course, it became the last remaining typefoundry in Australia and should, by commercial norms, have closed in the early 1990's.
But the proprietor, Michael Isaachsen, turned the whole collection into a non-profit museum rather than see it broken up. The Museum was established as part of this restructure in 1993. The type company now functions as part of the Museum.
ATC produces and stocks a full range of typefaces and printers' supplies.
Melbourne Museum of Printing was established in 1993, when ATC was restructured. Much of the collection was already in place, having been put together since 1977 by ATC's proprietor.