Set on a bluff that once overlooked the Missouri River, Arrow Rock was named for the flint that Native Americans took from the bluff to make arrowheads. Explorers Lewis and Clark noted the bluff, a prominent landmark for many travelers passing westward on the Santa Fe Trail, on their journey in the early 1800s.
The Missouri Press Association, with former executive director William A. Bray in the lead, along with the help of many Missouri newspaper publishers who donated equipment, established the MPA Print Shop Museum on Main Street in Arrow Rock during the mid-1960s. They chose Arrow Rock as the location of the museum because of the town’s historic character and the available building, the Odd Fellows Lodge Building, which had also been home to a newspaper office.
• Friends of Arrow Rock
In the 1960s, the “cold type” method of offset printing replaced “hot metal” letterpress printing equipment, so it was an ideal time for Missouri newspaper publishers to donate old equipment to the museum.
The museum includes a collection of printing presses and letterpress equipment that is extensive. One of the museum’s pieces, a St. Louis Washington hand press with a serial number of 241, is the oldest of its kind recorded in the North American Hand Press Database. The press is about 150 years old.
Also on display in the museum is a variety of letterpress printing equipment, including a Linotype, a newspaper flatbed press, job presses, Washington hand presses, hand-set type and other tools of the printing trade.
A desk belonging to Country Editor H.J. “Jack” Blanton of the Monroe County Appeal in Paris, Missouri, is in the museum.
Blanton and his newspaper are known for being depicted in Norman Rockwell’s famous wartime painting, “Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Editor.”
The first floor of the historic Odd Fellows Lodge brick building, owned by the Friends of Arrow Rock, is modeled after the old Saline County Herald newspaper office. The Herald was founded in 1856 in Marshall, moved to Arrow Rock in 1858, and published until 1861.
The Missouri Press Foundation, an affiliate of MPA, owns the museum’s contents and supports the museum with annual contributions for maintenance, improvements and other expenses.
In partnership with the Friends of Arrow Rock, the MPA offers tours of the museum to the public.
A marker notes the location of the time capsule, which was buried in 1992, during the 125th anniversary of MPA.
Fun Fact:
In 1963, the town of Arrow Rock was designated a National Historic Landmark, due to its association with the Westward Expansion.
Photo by Friends of Arrow Rock
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