South Street Seaport Museum Free Virtual Program Bowne & Co. Stationers: Printing in 19th Century New York

South Street Seaport Museum announces a free virtual program on printing in 19th Century New York, with Bowne & Co. Stationers, on Thursday, July 9, 2020 at 12:30pm EDT. Sign up to reserve a spot at https://turnstiletours.com/bowne-co-letterpress-printing-in-19th-century-new-york/. 

Enjoy a virtual visit to Bowne & Co., Stationers, which opened their doors at the South Street Seaport Museum in 1975, 200 years after Robert Bowne founded his shop across the street on Queen Lane. Today, Bowne & Co. continues the tradition of 19th-century letterpress printing. This virtual program with Art Director Rob Wilson – co-hosted with Stefan Dreisbach Williams from the home of Robert Bowne’s ancestors, the 1661 Bowne House in Flushing, Queens – investigates the changing role that stationery and printing offices played in New York City, and the ways in which Bowne & Co. uses its collection of 34 printing presses and more than 2400 cases of movable type in contemporary ways today.

This free program is co-presented with Turnstile Tours, a local company providing well-researched experiences through partnership with select nonprofit organizations.

About Robert Wilson, Art Director and Operation Manager, Bowne & Co.

Rob Wilson joined the South Street Seaport Museum as Printing and Operations Manager in the summer of 2015, and was named Art Director and Operations Manager, Bowne Printers in 2018. In his role at Bowne & Co., he is responsible for the general operations of custom printing, education, public programming, as well as the overall maintenance and management of the printing history collection in collaboration with the Director of Collections.

During his time at the Museum, Rob has contributed to larger museum initiatives in a design and production role for exhibitions, special events, Museum communications, creative direction, and public programming. 

Rob received his BFA in Visual Communications from the University of Arizona, and his MFA in Communications Design from Pratt Institute. Rob has worked as a graphic designer in both a freelance and in-house capacity, and most recently worked for Pearson North America as a Graphic and Data Visualization Specialist where he focused on usability testing and presentation for educational software platforms. 

Upon receiving his MFA, Rob began teaching graphic design classes as an adjunct professor at Pratt Institute and Rutgers University, and is currently an adjunct professor of Graphic Design at Pace University. 

About the South Street Seaport Museum
The South Street Seaport Museum, located in the heart of the historic seaport district in New York City, preserves and interprets the history of New York as a great port city. Founded in 1967, the Museum houses an extensive collection of works of art and artifacts, a maritime reference library, exhibition galleries and education spaces, working nineteenth century print shops, and an active fleet of historic vessels that all work to tell the story of “Where New York Begins.” 
www.southstreetseaportmuseum.org

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