[1] In 1978, a group of New England printers and publishers mobilized to preserve hot metal typesetting equipment which was being replaced by the Boston Globe newspaper.

[3] For the first 18 years, the growing collection was dispersed in various warehouses and spaces inaccessible to the public.

In 1997, some of the collection was first opened to view in space formerly occupied by the Textile Museum in North Andover, Massachusetts.

In 2016, Rochester Institute of Technology Professor Emeritus Frank Romano acquired and donated a former electrical supplies building in Haverhill, Massachusetts to house the museum.

[3][2] The core of the collection was contributed by Romano, who spent his career in the development of the modern printing business.