Visiting artist, Bryan Hamilton.

Bryan Hamilton is a fairly new resident of New Bern. After retiring from a career in federal service, he and his wife, Kathy, and his mother-in-law Janet, moving from the DC metro area in June of 2019 to an historic home in the Riverside neighborhood.

Printing as a hobby resulted from his first job when he was 12 1/2 in rural Missouri. The weekly newspaper and print shop still used letterpress printing on occasion, although they had modernized the newspaper production leaving a cabinet of old printing type in the dark back room.

His mentor in printing and family friend taught him modern and “ancient” printing, which eventually provided him with his career vocation and hobby interest. Several years ago, he drove back to Missouri to haul back that cabinet of metal printing type . . . a gift from his aging first boss and newspaper owner/editor. It now resides with other antique cabinets of type and several smaller workbench-size presses in his newly built studio and workshop.

Although he is more of a technical person than a creative person, he hopes to develop his creative side during the years ahead as he experiments with his growing collection of metal and wood printing type, and antique images.