A limited edition reproduction of original artwork by Laurie Whitehead. Signed by the artist and numbered.
In 1994, The Printing Museum (then known as Houston's Museum of Printing History) commissioned Ms. Whitehead for a painting to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the linotype. Ottmar Mergenthaler's invention of "The Freedom Machine," history's nickname for the first automatic typesetting machine, revolutionized the printing industry. Thomas Edison called it the "eighth wonder of the world" [the Astrodome hadn't yet been built].
The image depicts Mergenthaler in a small newspaper shop of the time period, instructing a printer how to operate his new-fangled machine while a mischievous printer's devil stokes the stove.
Offset lithograph. Image size: 24" x 19". Total size: 28" x 22".
