Haverhill, MA — The Museum of Printing has an extensive collection of rare Bibles and many will be on display during March and April. The Museum has one leaf from every Bible printed in Colonial America, including the first Bible printed in America. It was the Eliot Bible of 1663 in the Algonquin Indian language.

Because the King James Bible had typographical errors. King James ordered a new printing. The 1762 Baskerville Bible was the result. It is considered one of the most beautiful Bibles and the typeface designed for it is named for its designer, John Baskerville, and still used to this day. There are giant Folio-sized Bibles and pocket-sized Bibles. The so-called Pony Express Bible was small enough to travel with the mail riders racing across the Western Plains.

A replica of the Gutenberg Bible allows visitors to see the work that started the process of printing. Leaves from Luther’s German translation are on display and they changed the world of religion forever.

“The Book of 1,000 Tongues” has a Bible passage set in every language known in 1939. Many of those languages have disappeared. See it all and take one of the handouts (while available) that tells the story of the printed Bible throughout history. The Museum of Printing is at 15 Thornton Ave. in Haverhill, Massachusetts right off exit 49 from 495. Covid precautions are in place.