Printing in America

The Holy Bible. Stereotype Edition Philadelphia, 1812.   

The “privilege” or monopoly for printing the Bible in England held by Cambridge and Oxford University Presses and the Royal Printer did not extend to the United States, where any publisher could print the Bible. This edition published by the Bible Society of Philadelphia in 1812 was the first book printed in the United States from stereotype plates made from the improved Stanhope process of stereotyping. The plates were made in London by T. Rutt, demonstrating one instance of European technology transferring to the newly formed United States. 

Alexander McLeod. Ed. The Larger Catechism. New York, 1813.   

This was the first book printed in America from stereotype plates produced in America. McLeod was pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian Congregation in in New York City and a prolific author of dozens of books on religious subjects. 

Portrait of Daniel Treadwell. Frontispiece from Morrill Wyman. “Memoir of Daniel Treadwell.” Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Centennial Volume, Vol. 9. Cambridge,MA, 1888.

The history of the mechanization of newspaper, magazine, and book production in the United States is quite distinct from the history of mechanization in England, France, or Germany. Far fewer printing machines from England were exported to America than were sold in England or on the Continent of Europe, providing an opportunity for American inventors to create and build their own printing machines. The first of these was Daniel Treadwell’s mechanized platen press, called Treadwell’s Power Press, invented in 1821; the first books produced on printing machines in North America were printed on Treadwell machines. 

Morrill Wyman. “Memoir of Daniel Treadwell.” Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Centennial Volume, Vol. 9. Cambridge, MA, 1888.

Schematic of the Treadwell Power Press, the first American printing machine. Intending his press primarily for book printing, Treadwell invented a bed-and-platen press, to be powered by horse, water, or humans, rather than a steam engine, since steam engines were in very short supply in America during the 1820s.  

The Holy Bible. Boston, 1826.  

In England, Oxford and Cambridge University Presses, which held a “privilege,” or monopoly, on printing the Bible, were slow to adopt printing machines and did not employ them until the 1830s. Printed on Treadwell’s Power Press in Boston in 1826, this edition of the Old and New Testaments , as stated just above the imprint date, was the first edition of both testaments ever printed on a printing machine. 

The First Annual Report […] of the American Bible Society. New York, 1817.   

Treadwell’s first large customer for his printing machines was the American Bible Society (ABS), founded in New York in April 1816 by Elias Boudinot. Initially, the Society’s main function was producing stereotype plates used to produce Bibles by local constituent Bible societies around the country, but they rapidly got into the publishing business themselves, issuing quality books at just over cost.

The Society’s first annual report contains sample pages of the various stereotyped Bibles published by the Society. The distinction between the different editions was primarily related to the type size. 

M. Lavoisne. A complete genealogical, historical, chronological, and geographical atlas; being a general guide to history, both ancient and modern. Philadelphia, 1820.

Carey & Lea’s edition of Lavoisne’s Atlas is the first American book to advertise that it was printed on Gilpin’s machine-made paper. The Ruthven press on which the book was printed was a compact platen flatbed press invented and manufactured in Scotland by John Ruthven from 1819 to 1822. The design of the Ruthven press was unusual in that pressure on the inked type pressing against the paper was exerted from below the flatbed rather than from above.

New-York American, Vol. 6, No. 601. New York, 4 January 1826.   

This issue of the New-York American newspaper published a long article on its first page regarding the paper’s import from London. It also noted the first use in North America of a Napier Imperial printing machine, the first printing machine designed to print newspapers. The publishers emphasized that they acquired a machine that could be hand-cranked, since appropriate steam engines were not available in New York, and human power was more efficient and reliable than having the machine powered by a horse. 

Daniel Davis. Davis’ Manual of Magnetism […]. Boston, 1842.  

The frontispiece of Daniel Davis’s book, which includes a description of the electrotype process, shows that electrotype copies could not be distinguished from the originals. 

[Jacob Abbott]. The Harper Establishment […]. New York, 1855.  

An author of books for young people, Jacob Abbott wrote a well-illustrated account of all the operations of the Harper and Brothers’ publishing facility in 1855. By that time Harper and Brothers employed several women to operate their Adams Power Presses in their building in New York City. 

The inventor and politician Isaac Adams, who had worked with Daniel Treadwell, was the first American to improve on the Treadwell Power Press. Between 1827 and 1830, he invented the Adams Power Press, a platen press operating under power, which revolutionized the printing industry, especially book production in America. Introduced in 1830, by 1836 the Adams Power Press had become the leading machine used in book printing in America and remained so for much of the nineteenth century. 

Harper’s Illuminated and New Pictorial Bible. Prospectus. New York, 1843.    

The prospectus states that Harper’s Bible will have sixteen hundred historical engravings, plus an illuminated letter for each chapter, by Joseph Alexander Adams. To make the Harper’s Illuminated and New Pictorial Bible affordable to the widest number of people, Harper and Brothers printed the edition in fifty-four parts, ranging from twenty-five to sixty pages and costing twenty-five cents each. Optimistic about sales via this method, they ordered an initial press run of fifty thousand copies per installment; subscribers could purchase the installments as they appeared and then have them bound upon completion of the book in 1846. 

Harper’s Illuminated and New Pictorial Bible. New York, 1846.   

The first large-scale application of electrotypes in book illustration in the United States was Harper and Brothers’ Harper’s Illuminated and New Pictorial Bible, published in parts between 1843 and 1846; it is considered to be the finest book produced in the United States up to that date. Among this exceptional Bible’s extraordinary features are the sixteen hundred historical illustrations engraved by Joseph Alexander Adams and reproduced by electrotype; in 1844, Harper and Brothers ordered a new set of presses specially designed to facilitate the electrotyping printing process. The complete work, printed on high-quality paper, weighed over thirteen pounds when bound. Even though it was a large and expensive book, Harper and Brothers sold over seventy-five thousand copies of the New Pictorial Bible, reflecting the high demand for Bibles in mid-nineteenth-century America. 

“Making the Magazine.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 31. No. 187. New York, December 1865.  

A cross-section of the Harper brothers’ six-story building enlarged to show detail. On the ground floor, the steam engine is on the far left, and printing machines operated by men are on the far right. On the second floor, a hand pressroom is on the far left; the remainder of that floor shows a series of Adams Power Presses being operated by women. The floor above that appears to be mainly book storage. The next three floors up are the bindery, where many women are employed. The top floor, which would have had the best light from windows and skylights, is occupied by typesetters, all of whom appear to be men. 

Geo. C. Rand & Avery Printers. Boston, c. 1865.  

Rand & Avery claimed to be the largest printing operation in Boston. This cross-section of the Rand & Avery building shows their Corliss steam engine on the ground floor, the elevator, and the arrangement of the different departments on the various floors of their building. 

Stereo photograph. N.d.

This stereo photograph depicts the Hoe Four-Cylinder Type-Revolving Printing machine, probably the same model that is shown in the illustration from Hoe’s 1867 Printing Machines catalogue. This may be one of the only surviving period photographs of any large printing machine from the mid-nineteenth century. The woman sitting on the machine, and wearing a full skirt, would probably have been employed to feed paper into the machine.