PrintingNews.com

While tiny neighboring Delaware is known as the First State—by virtue of the fact that on Dec. 7, 1787, it became the first of the 13 original states to ratify the U.S. Constitution—Pennsylvania claims many firsts when it comes to printing, and has a long and honored heritage in the craft.

The first printing press in Pennsylvania was that of William Bradford, an important printer of the 17th and 18th centuries who was born in Leicestershire, England, in 1663. After having served his apprenticeship to a London printer, Mr. Bradford emigrated to Philadelphia in the early 1680s, and set up his press. In 1688 he established a bookstore, and he founded, with the Rittenhouse brothers, a paper mill.

Shortly after opening his print shop, however, Mr. Bradford printed the Pennsylvania Charter—an act which landed him in hot water with the British authorities—and in 1689 he relocated to New York, having decided that city harbored a better climate for printers. One of Mr. Bradford's apprentices in New York was John Peter Zenger, who left the shop in 1733 and founded the Weekly Journal, a newspaper which attacked the British administration, and ultimately landed Mr. Zenger in jail. It took a Philadelphia lawyer, Alexander Hamilton, to get Mr. Zenger out.

Inventors and Manufacturers

Of course, no accounting of Pennsylvania and printing would be complete without reference to Benjamin Franklin, who opened his own printing shop in Philadelphia in 1728, at the age of 22. Mr. Franklin had learned the business of printing in Boston, and after a brief stint in London, settled in Philadelphia, where his Poor Richard's Almanac became widely read.

Mr. Franklin believed fervently in the power of the press, and used his to bring news to all the people. His crusade of spreading the printed word led him, in 1731, to found America's first circulating library, so people could borrow books despite being unable to afford them.

In 1777 and 1778, the Continental Congress met in York, Penn., where a local printer, Hall & Sellers Press, printed government publications and the Continental Currency, using the first printing press west of the Susquehanna River.

The first type foundry was established in 1735 by Christopher Sauer of Germantown, Penn. Mr. Sauer also published a successful German newspaper, beginning in 1739. In 1745 Benjamin Mecom, a nephew of Benjamin Franklin, cast plates for several pages of the New Testament, in what is viewed as the first attempt at producing stereotypes for printing. Mr. Mecom never completed his book.

In 1796, Adam Ramage, a Scotsman living in Philadelphia, made a major improvement to the Gutenberg press by replacing the ancient spindle screw with one utilizing triple threads and providing rapid action. Using the Ramage press, two pressmen could effortlessly produce 250 impressions per hour. In addition, the Ramage press was more compact and lighter in weight than its predecessors. It quickly became the favorite of American pioneer printers, who carried it westward via horse and wagon, oxcart, prairie schooner, and flatboat to establish newspapers on the new frontier.