The Howard Iron Works Museum and Restoration facility is a lifelong dream of Liana and Nick Howard. The Howards are custodians of Howard Graphic Equipment Ltd., a company that is a leading-edge supplier and rebuilder of printing and converting equipment. The business continues into its 57th year, having started in 1967.
Since Nick Howard was a young boy, he has worked in the printing trade. This lifelong vocation continues the tradition of several generations. Liana Howard has been involved and instrumental in leading the Howard Group of Companies and shares the same passion. Together, they have assembled a diverse and important collection featuring machinery and materials from 1830 to 1950. Each piece represents a key building block in the advancement of the printing processes.
HIW was a dream both wanted to see come to life. There are many outstanding museums devoted to printing around the world. Passionate individuals operate these and have served the arts and creative community for decades. HIW shares this love but also wants to utilize the skills of the HGE technicians to restore machines to a new level completely.
Restoration is the key fundamental difference one will immediately notice at the HIW. All machines are completely disassembled, repaired and finished to “As New” condition. That offers another way to enjoy some of the most beautiful machinery ever made - just as they would have been when they left the small workshops of Europe and America. Restoration is the primary difference of HIW.
The printing press is either the greatest blessing
or the greatest curse of modern times,
sometimes one forgets which it is.
The most powerful machine ever developed by man
was not the nuclear reactor nor the computer.
It was the Printing press, without which
neither would have seen the light of day.