Milton S. Hershey had three failed attempts at starting candy companies in Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York. In 1883 he relocated to Lancaster, PA and opened the Lancaster Carmel Company. This company became a great success and led to what has now become the premier American Chocolate Company. In 1893 Milton visited the Columbian Exposition World’s Fair in Chicago. His visit to the German exhibit left him enamored with the chocolate-making machinery on display. He ended up purchasing some German equipment and began making chocolate candy at the Lancaster Carmel Company. In 1900, he sold his Lancaster Carmel Company in order to pursue his dream of producing chocolate exclusively. He spent the next few years developing his own recipe for Milk Chocolate, which was previously only a foreign luxury snack. He managed to perfect a recipe and thus began his mission to open a factory for production.







In 1903 he returned to his Birth town of Derry Township, Pa and began construction of his dream chocolate manufacturing facility. The factory was completed in 1905 and began to produce what has become the most famous of all American made chocolate candy bars, the Hershey Bar. He marketed his product nationally and was the first person to do so with this type of product. Milton Hershey had much more in mind than just becoming the premier American chocolate manufacturing company. He was a great humanitarian and one of his main goals was to provide his employees with an entire community built around his chocolate empire. Not only providing a lovely community, but also providing great transportation, schools, recreation, and cultural activities. In 1907 he opened Hershey Park mainly for his employees enjoyment. The park continued to grow with added attractions and soon was getting many non-local visitors. The city that he built around the factory featured gorgeous tree-lined street with attractive and comfortable housing. During the Great Depression he began a building campaign to ensure the towns continued growth and provided employment for the local population. Others were telling him not to invest his money in such projects but Milton ignored them and continued to build what has now become a premier vacation destination. In 1930 he began construction of the Hershey Hotel, overlooking his Hershey Park and the Chocolate Factory. The hotel was completed in 1933 and today it is still one of the most loved structures in the area.







A trip to Hershey PA today is quite a treat. The town is exceptional with its Hershey Kiss street lamps, manicured streets, and many attractions. Hershey Park has grown into an impressive array of rides and attractions. One of the favorite additions was that of Chocolate World next to Hershey Park. This attraction is free of cost and offers a Chocolate Manufacturing Tour Ride, 3-D movie, restaurants, and a store filled with every kind of Hershey product made, including candy and souvenirs. There is a Hershey town trolley tour and the old order Amish communities in Lancaster Pa are just a short drive away.


The three vintage printers blocks featured for this article are original pieces used in off-set printing from days long past. The top one features the classic Hershey Bar, the Great American Chocolate Bar. The second block is an early graphic of the new chocolate factory in Hershey, PA. The last block features one of Milton Hershey's original products. The item debuted in 1894 and this is a very early cut advertising that classic product.

The Museum of Printing History is located in Houston, Texas and displays a dynamic collection of historical documents, fine art prints, and antique printing equipment. Artifacts in the collection range in time from humanity's earliest writing through the twenty-first century. The exhibitions document history from the origins of printing on Mesopotamian clay tablets around 3000 B.C., through pre-Gutenberg manuscript production. The collection reflects the beginning of printing in Europe with Gutenberg's invention of movable type, and illustrates printing of the Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment, and beyond. A visitor will find the Dharani Scroll, an 8th-century Japanese text which is commonly considered the first example of printing words onto paper; a page from William Caxton, the first printer of the English language; a Spanish-Nahuatl dictionary printed by Juan Pablos, the first printer in the Americas; Old Master woodcuts and engravings; and various other treasures. In addition, the Museum contains exhibit spaces devoted to American Colonial printed documents and examples of early Texas printing.


The Museum contains four rotating galleries which present original exhibitions upon a wide range of topics. They have recently mounted exhibitions on book forgery, pop-up books, and early African exploration; a collaboration with Houston's own John Lienhard; and the work of artists from Edward Gorey to Marc Chagall. The shows frequently depict subjects with local interest, including promotional posters from Houston's great 1970's rock venue, Liberty Hall, and a retrospective of our city's rich heritage of newspaper reporting and printing.


The Museum of Printing History was founded in 1979 by Raoul Beasley, Vernon P. Hearn, Don Piercy, and J. V. Burnham, four printers with passions for preserving their vast collections and sharing them with the community. It was chartered in 1981 and had its official opening in 1982 with Dr. Hans Halaby, Director of the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany, cutting the ribbon. They offer guided tours and workshops on letterpress printing, bookbinding, papermaking, lithography, and related arts.



The mission of the Museum is to promote, preserve, and share the knowledge of printed communication and art as the greatest contributors to the development of the civilized world and the continuing advancement of freedom and literacy.

Another fish that weighs highly in our list of favorites. The Striped Bass, Roccus Saxatilis. This printer’s plate has a size & age chart for the Striper during its growth in the first nine years of life. A beautiful cut that measures 4 3/8” x 4” and is a metal alloy face mounted on hardwood block. We had two top spots on the West Coast for catching these beautiful fish. There are many good waters to fish. These two were just our favorites. Bringing the boat just outside of the breaking waves at Pacifica Beach just south of San Francisco always produced nice stripers. It was a little tricky with the large waves up there but worth the effort for any serious angler. Not only did you have that great fishing, the scenery is outstanding. It’s a lengthy uphill boat ride from Half Moon Bay but again, worth the effort. Our other favorite spot was San Luis Reservoir in the hills of the San Joaquin Valley. The stripers here would boil on the surface when they find the baitfish. Casting lures works very well for them and there is not a much more exciting way to catch them. They wouldn’t always be boiling on the surface and we have also fished and caught them by running live bait. Either way produced some great stripers out of a very scenic lake.


On the East Coast, most people refer to them as Rock Fish. I fished for them once in the Chesapeake Bay and although it was a much different fishing experience, the results were incredible and provided some of the best striper fishing ever. Around October the big boys come in and there are many 40-pound class fish caught. The single time I fished there, the boat caught near 200 fish, 43 of them being the ones I caught. The Chesapeake Bay is truly a fisherman’s dream. Although we had just as much fun collecting prehistoric sharks teeth on Chesapeake Beach and Calvert Cliffs. We’re can hardly wait for our next chance for another trip down.


A nice old logo cut with a hooked fish jumping out of the water. Centered in a wreath frame embellished with leaves. This is a metal alloy face mounted on hardwood printer’s block. It measures 2” x 2” and is “type-high”. The Ocean City Fishing Club was first started in the summer of 1913 and is the oldest continuously operated fishing club in the country. The OCFC pier at 14th Street and the Boardwalk extends 635 feet from the public Boardwalk over sand into the Atlantic Ocean. Today, the Ocean City Fishing Club still carries on the tradition of good fishing, fun, sportsmanship, and fellowship among the club members and the public.

It’s hard not to gravitate towards some of the fine fish graphics on these antique and vintage printer’s blocks. With my love for fishing and some of the incredible old graphics used, it seems almost natural. I’ve spent many hundreds of hours fishing on the Pacific Ocean for Salmon, Rock and Ling Cod, Perch, Yellowtail, Albacore Tuna, Squid, Dungeness Crab, and other fun and tasty critters. Not even to mention the fresh water fishing we did on the entire West Coast. The locations we trout fished are countless but our favorite place for them has always been the McCloud River at the foot of Mt. Shasta. The native Dolly Varden is an extremely beautiful fish however we never consumed one of those. Catch and release only for those beauties. My wife and I have many hours under our belts fishing the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean from St. Petersburg Beach down to Key West. We lived on trout (by choice) when we traveled through and spent a few weeks in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

I’ve been lucky enough to fish Marlin and Dorado out of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and Sailfish out of Cancun. Catching a 280-pound Marlin on 30-pound test is quite a rush. The sailfish were just insane, jumping higher and faster than any fish I had ever encountered. Of course that’s not including the tarpon my wife hooked while fishing near Ft. DeSoto St. Park in Florida. A couple quick jumps and tearing off at high speed and he was gone. Or the five-foot barracuda she hooked off the 7-mile bridge in the Florida Keys. We were East Coast fishing virgins at that point and were not ready for anything like a tarpon or a barracuda. After those episodes, we spent our time on Red Drum (Redfish) and caught a good number. With that love of fishing and these great blocks, I thought I would share a few here.


New York Fish Market Print Block


This is an antique printer’s type block cast from solid foundry alloy metal. The graphic is an advertisement for the New York Fish Market, Quality Sea Food. I just love the large fish as the banner and the crab and oysters as other seafood products offered. The block measures 2 5/8” x 1 1/8”. We have other fish market or storage blocks that will be added at a later time, but this one is exceptional as an early representation of the fish market.


Fresh Redfish Meal Print Block

This one just brings back memories of the many gorgeous redfish we caught out of the Gulf of Mexico. Even with the number of redfish we caught, we never ate a one of them. We always enjoyed the catch and released them to swim off for another days catch. This early graphic depicts a freshly caught fish sitting on the rocks in front of a lighthouse. Early sailboats or schooners can be seen on the distant water. Although I don’t see a spot on the fish’s tail as a redfish would have, regardless of that it appears to be some sort of drum? After all, a redfish is nothing more than a red drum fish. There is a fisherman’s knife sitting beside the fish and a plate in the foreground. It’s an electrotype copper face mounted on hardwood block that measures 1 ½” x 1 3/16”

We’ll add some more great fish related blocks in a future post. Have to run now……….