Melbourne Museum of Printing
Our Staff and Volunteers
PAST AND PRESENT
Our Director
Michael Isaachsen, originally from Adelaide (South Australia),
retired from Telecom Australia [now Telstra Corp]. Also Manager
of our typefoundry, Australian Type Company.
Michael has been a hobby printer since the age of 9 and learnt
typecasting about 1978.
Michael's other voluntary work is research into the environment
and the effects of transportation on it. To avoid road traffic
growing to four times its present levels (within less than a hundred
years) rail traffic must grow to far more than four times, perhaps
twenty times.
NOTE (2011): Staff listed below have left years ago.
They made valuable contributions to the formation of the organisation. All are fondly remembered.
Katherine Foster
Katherine first came to the Museum to print something in our
Access Studio. But the work was so absorbing, and Katherine met
so many interesting visitors wanting to do the same, that she
became a volunteer and stayed on for over two years and continued
to visit from time to time.
Ron Hanniver
A volunteer who regularly helped in the office. Ron is a former trainee
who stayed on after his traineeship.
Tony Farthing
Tony is a self-trained mechanic. He visits the Museum from time
to time and helps on fixing things up.
Making and mending bicycles is one of Tony's great passions. He and
his son Robert are also pretty keen on computers.
Alana Wignell
A trainee who developed an interest and great skills in assisting
our visiting artists who come to use the Access Studio.
Alana has previous experience with printing (but not letterpress)
and has took the opportunity to learn letterpress with great
enthuiasm. Alana has moved on into mainstream printing.
Daniel Hone
A trainee whose main contribution was to reorganise our storage area
so the we can find things and use the space more efficiently.
Furio Donato
A trainee who is very interested in the operation of Museums and
who is learning what is involved in public relations. Furio was
involved in moving and classifying our artefacts, and put
in some time with hand typesetting and printing to get the flavour
of letterpress.
Furio's interest outside the Museum is the curation of artefacts of
ancient civilisations.
Wayne Duncan
Another Linotype operator, Wayne worked at a Melbourne newspaper
in the composing room for many years, and now comes to the Museum
as a volunteer.
Another of Wayne's great interests is the study of railways and
tramways. This has taken him and his camera to many places
around the world. This has led him back to New Zealand but hopefully
we will see Wayne again.
Robert Mihkailovski
Robert is a former curator at the Museum of Art in Bitola,
Macedonia, who came to Australia in 1992 (?).
Robert has learnt letterpress typesetting and printing and
comes in occasionally to lend a hand on anything that's going on
or produce a poster with hand-set large types.
Seiko Harada
Seiko took a year's leave from her Visual Communication course
at Tsukuba University in Ibaraki, Japan, and in her travels found
this Museum.
Seiko became a regular volunteer and apart from helping with a
variety of tasks became busy practicing the fundamentals of letterpress
printmaking.
Don Hauser
Don retired from the printing industry but keeps in touch as a
consultant. Don has spent some time helping the Museum reorganise
during and after our unwanted move, and intends to try his hand
at his old trade, letterpress composing and printing.
Hortensiu Arosio
Hortense has given the Museum a helping hand on many occasions. He
had no knowledge of printing but found it interesting, working
with the thousands of varied items in the collection and starting
a database.
Hortense, who came from East Timor, has now got a regular job.
Good Luck!
Last updated December 2000
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