Museum of Printing and Graphic Communication

The museum was begun by the master-printer Maurice Audin in 1964 and celebrated its half century with a major renovation in 2014. It occupies the Hôtel de la Couronne, a Renaissance house that became Lyon's first city hall. It has an internationally significant collection. An enormous range of graphic materials is displayed – rare books, artists’ prints and posters, bus tickets and advertisements, record sleeves and comics. There is also equipment from several ages for typography and printing. The story begins with developments leading to the invention of Gutenberg, which transformed how knowledge and ideas could be communicated. It then explores the expansion of printing books and images in Lyon in the Renaissance. Changes in the Industrial Revolution included railway transport and greater mechanisation in printing, for example the invention of fast-operating presses, lithography and photography. This resulted in a huge growth in the diversity and quantity of printed products. The exhibitions also discuss the ‘information society’ that developed in the late twentieth century.