History of the Book 2024

Dickinson Blog for ENGL 222

Month: February 2025

The Second Edition and Afterlife of The History of Printing in America

February 14, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Although Isaiah Thomas’s History of Printing in America was the first of its kind to compile American newspapers, pamphlets, books, and interviews from fellow printers to create a vital record, Thomas, the American Antiquarian Society, Benjamin Franklin Thomas (Isaiah Thomas’s Grandson), and William McCulloch continued to improve upon the original text—leading to the creation of the second edition. Two years after the publication of the first edition in 1810, McCulloch, one of Philadelphia’s leading printers, wrote letters to Thomas, later published by the American Antiquarian Society as ‘William McCulloch’s Additions to Thomas’s History of Printing” in 1912. McCulloch highlighted the numerous factual inaccuracies, mostly concerning the printing history in Pennsylvania, within the two volumes and offered corrections and improvements from simple date, number, and name corrections to paragraphs dedicated to the lives of printers. He even suggests that Isaiah Thomas get rid of certain accounts (like the paper L’Hemisphere on page 93 for its “poor catchpenny production,” Folwell’s “Spirit of the Press” and Helmbold’s the Tickler, stating on page 94 and without elaboration, “their editors are the disgrace of civilization”). Besides McColloch’s strong opinions on the previous works, he does provide invaluable information to Thomas such as on page 93 where he writes, “You relate, in one place, that there are 400 Printing Offices in America, and in another of there being 350 Newspaper establishments. Is there not some clashing in this statement?” and sharing his recording of printing houses in Philadelphia from 1803, “There were 45 offices keeping 89 presses. Of these printers, 15 were also booksellers.” Thomas’s numerous errors could be the product of being the first in America to record printing history and a lack of review from fellow printers; if McCulloch, being an experienced printer who can fact-check Thomas, never read Thomas’s book, it is likely these errors would remain unchanged and consequentially misinform readers. According to the American Antiquarian Society, two years after McCulloch sent the letter, Thomas responds with a 296-page manuscript which will lay the foundation for the second edition.

Thomas sadly passed away in 1831 at the age of 82, leaving the completion of The History of Printing in America’s second edition to his grandson, Benjamin Franklin Thomas, and the American Antiquarian Society, which was printed by Joel Munsell in 1847. The second edition heavily relied upon Thomas’s memoranda with American Antiquarian Society members, John R. Bartlett and Samuel F. Haven Jr, expanding upon Isaiah Thomas’s unfinished work. According to the preface in the second edition, one of the major changes to the first edition was Thomas’s chapters on the origins of printing in the Old World, which were omitted from the book by the society. The preface states that these chapters are “less adapted to the present state of information on that subject, as requiring too much modification and enlargement, as occupying space demanded for additional matter of an important character, and as not essential to the special object of presenting a history of the American Press.” This explains the removal of chapters such as “Origin and practice of printing in China” and “Introduction of Printing in England” and the addition of chapters titled “Spanish America,” “French America,” “Dutch America,” and “Portuguese America;” despite these chapters’ importance to print culture before America, they stray away from the title of the book and take away pages that could potentially be used for further delving into American print. Continuing, Thomas was not satisfied with his account of Spanish American Printing and wished to further expand upon it, which could potentially be due to a language barrier or overall lack of information in his collection. Therefore, society member John R. Bartlett “has given special attention to the subject” and completed Thomas’s research. Another change to the first edition that Thomas wished to fulfill was the mentioned in the preface of the first edition, in which Thomas states, “It was my design to have given a catalog of the books printed in the English colonies previous to the revolution; finding, however, that it would enlarge this work to another volume, 1 have deferred the publication, but it may appear hereafter.” Samuel F. Haven Jr., another member of Thomas’s Society, collected and examined books relating to Isaiah Thomas’s research, which he would later compile in the second edition. Despite the major difference between editions, Isaiah Thomas’s and the American Antiquarian Society’s dedication to creating a well-researched and extensive new edition shows the importance of ensuring historical accuracy.

The afterlife of the book continues on with the many reprints from publishers such as Burt Franklin in 1967, Weathervane Books in 1970, Johnson Reprint Corp. in 1971, and Nabu Public Domain Reprints in 2012—all of them based on the second edition. Additionally, there are free digital copies of the first and second editions available online at the Internet Archive. To obtain a copy of the first edition of the book printed in 1810, buyers must part ways with about $3,000, according to Biblo.com, a rare book shopping website.

            The History of Printing in America stands today as a testament to not only Isaiah Thomas’s dedication to history but also the efforts of William McCulloch and the American Antiquarian Society, who shared Thomas’s vision and helped him improve his work. The high prices for the physical copies of the book and the online accessibility emphasize its historical significance. The Dickinson Archive’s copy of the first edition of Thomas’s The History of Printing in America, gifted to the Belles Lettres Society by Charles Wesley Pitman in 1837—prior to the publication of the second edition—stands as a valuable book for its rich history, academic significance, and being authored by one of the greatest printers of the 1800s.

Fig. 1. The Table of Contents in volume one of the first edition of The History of Printing in America.

 

Fig 2. The Table of Contents from the second edition volume one of The History of Printing in America.

Fig. 3. The Table of Contents from the first edition of volume two of The History of Printing in America

Fig 4. The Table of Contents from the second edition volume two of The History of Printing in America.

Citations

First Folio. “THE HISTORY OF PRINTING IN AMERICA. WITH A BIOGRAPHY OF PRINTERS, AND AN ACCOUNT OF NEWSPAPERS,” Biblio, 2025, https://www.biblio.com/book/history-printing-america-biography-printers-account/d/1420818339

Accessed Feb 14, 2025

McCulloch, William. “William McCulloch’s Additions to Thomas’s History of Printing.” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society at the Semi-Annual Meeting Held in Boston, vol. 31, The Davis Press Worcester, Mass., 1912, pp. 89–100.

“Search: This History of Printing in America by Isaiah Thomas.” World Cat. Online Computer Library Center, 2025,https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=This+History+of+Printing+in+America+by+Isaiah+Thomas&author=Thomas%2C+Isaiah&itemSubType=book-printbook&itemSubTypeModified=book-printbook,

Accessed Feb 14, 2025

Thomas, Isaiah. The History of Printing in America. With a Biography of Printers, and an Account of Newspapers. To Which Is Prefixed a Concise View of the Discovery and Progress of the Art in Other Parts of the World. In Two Volumes. the press of Isaiah Thomas, jun. Isaac Sturtevant, printer, 1810.

Thomas, Isaiah, The history of printing in America : with a biography of printers, and an account of newspapers : to which is prefixed a concise view of the discovery and progress of the art in other parts of the world : in two volumes, Volume 2, First Edition, The press of Isaiah Thomas, 1810, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/historyofprintin02inthom/page/n9/mode/2up, Accessed Feb 14, 2025

Thomas, Isaiah, The history of printing in America, with a Biography of Printers, and an Account of Newspapers in Two Volumes, Volume 1, Second Edition, The American Antiquarian Society, 1847, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/aey4217.0005.001.umich.edu/page/n11/mode/2up, Accessed Feb 14, 2025

Thomas, Isaiah, The history of printing in America, with a Biography of Printers, and an Account of Newspapers in Two Volumes, Volume 2, Second Edition, The American Antiquarian Society, 1847, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/aey4217.0002.001.umich.edu/page/n5/mode/2up, Accessed Feb 14, 2025

The Origins of The History of Printing in America and the Life of Isaiah Thomas

February 14, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Fig. 1. Isaiah Thomas’s print from the Halifax Gazette in 1765. The tax stamp, or printers’ rule, is upside down and Thomas includes a wood cut of the devil stabbing the tax stamp.

Isaiah Thomas, the author of The History of Printing in America and founder of the American Antiquarian Society, played a significant role in the Revolutionary War, not for his military or political power, but for his publications. According to the American Antiquarian Society’s Old “No. 1”: The History of Isaiah Thomas & His Printing Press, in 1755, Isaiah began his printing career as a young apprentice to Zechariah Fowle, who was known for printing ballads and smaller books. Thomas’s mother struggled to raise all six children and apprenticed Isaiah to Fowle when he was six years old. In Fowle’s press in Boston, he learned to set type on the printing press he referred to as No.1. The two would constantly disagree until Thomas left at the age of sixteen, intending to travel to London but ending up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1765. For about a year, he printed for the Halifax Gazette before being fired for his acts of defiance against the Stamp Act of 1765[1] –which the American Antiquarian Society states, “he reprinted news and commentary opposing the act and, for several issues, turned the printers’ rules[2] in the Gazette upside down in the press”–and was sent back to Massachusetts. Thomas continued his on-and-off partnership with Fowle until he took over their newspaper, the Massachusetts Spy, which played a vital role in spreading information in support of the revolution across the colonies–making him the Paul Revere of publications. Later in his career, after expanding his publishing business and establishing a paper mill and book bindery, Isaiah Thomas wrote and published two volumes of The History of Printing in America in 1810 using his vast collection of primary sources. This blog post will focus on the production of Thomas’ printing business, his paper mill, No. 1, and the second edition of The History of Printing in America.

Fig. 2. Advertisement for rags in the book, Isaiah Thomas’s Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut almanack for the year of our Lord Christ 1779

To begin, a shortage of paper caused the Massachusetts Spy to print out only half a sheet on February 7, 1776. The Spy stated, “We are sorry we cannot oblige our customers with more than half a sheet this a week owing to the want of paper. The present scarcity throughout this county will certainly continue unless a paper-mill is established in this neighborhood.” To solve the paper shortage, Isaiah Thomas established a paper mill in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1793, later called the Quinsigamond Paper Mill. According to the American Antiquarian Society, the paper mill could produce 1400 pounds of paper per week with the help of 10 men and 11 girls—one of the workers, Zenas Crane, would later found his own paper-making company which continues producing high-quality paper (and American banknotes) to this day. The mill made paper from the fibers of cotton and linen cloths which was scarce at the time, so Thomas would print advertisements (as seen in Fig. 3.) encouraging colonial women to provide clean white cloths for six dollars a pound. Only five years later (and twelve years before The History of Printing in America was published), Thomas sold the paper mill to Caleb and Elijah Burbank. This Mill, being established by Thomas and near his printing press, is most likely the source of paper for our book.

Fig. 3. The press where Isaiah Thomas learned the art of printing and later disassembled and transferred from Boston to Worcester in 1775, fearing its destruction by the British.

After buying Zechariah Fowle’s part of their printing company, Thomas gained ownership of his childhood printing press and type. According to the American Antiquarian Society’s Old “No. 1”: The History of Isaiah Thomas & His Printing Press, the English-made common press was three feet wide, six feet long, and six feet tall, made of strong elm, oak, chestnut, mahogany, and metal. Its appearance is similar to the Gutenberg press with the large wooden frame and a large screw connected to a heavy metal bar that pushes into the plate below. British soldiers threatened to destroy the press to prevent Thomas from printing the Spy for its critical opinions on the British government; there are even reports of Thomas being burned in effigy by loyalists for his newspaper’s stance on the war and its influence. One night in 1775, Isaiah Thomas dissembled and transported his printing press and type across the Charles River from Boston to Worcester where it remains with the American Antiquarian Society today, worn from the years of usage.

Isaiah Thomas’s contributions to the spread of knowledge, his defiance against the British through his printed work, and his effort to preserve the history of printmaking highlight the significant role publishers, printers, authors, and anyone involved in the creation of the printed word played in the 18th century. The History of Printing in America continues to be an invaluable primary source for understanding the evolution and impact of prints. Due to the scarcity and high cost of the original edition, Thomas’s grandson, Benjamin Franklin Thomas, published a second edition of The History of Printmaking in America—fulfilling Isaiah Thomas’s wish, which will be further discussed in the next post.

 

Sources

American Antiquarian Society. Old “No. 1”: The Story of Isaiah Thomas & His Printing Press. American Antiquarian Society, 1989.

Hixson, Richard F. “Thomas, Isaiah (1749-1831), printer and newspaperman.” American National Biography.  February, 2000. Oxford University Press. Date of access 10 Feb. 2025, <https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1601625>

Nichols, Charles L. “Some Notes on Isaiah Thomas and His Worcester Imprints.” Press of Charles Hamilton, 1900.

Thomas, Benjamin Franklin. Thomas, Isaiah. The History of Printing in America. With a Biography of Printers, and an Account of Newspapers. In Two Volumes. From Albany, N.Y.: JOEL MUNSELL, PRINTER. 1874.

Thomas, Isaiah. “Extracts From the Diaries and Accounts of Isaiah Thomas from the Year 1782 to 1804 and His Diary for 1808.” American Antiquarian Society. 1916.

Thomas, Isaiah. The History of Printing in America. With a Biography of Printers, and an Account of Newspapers. To Which Is Prefixed a Concise View of the Discovery and Progress of the Art in Other Parts of the World. In Two Volumes. From the press of Isaiah Thomas, jun. Isaac Sturtevant, printer, 1810.

 

 

 

[1] The British government passed the Stamp Act of 1765 taxed colonists on various types of paper, stamps, and cards without the approval of colonial legislation and required payments in scarce British currency instead of the available colonial currency—the act raised costs for printers and required publishers to place tax stamps on their papers.

[2] The tax stamp which presented paid tax during the Stamp Act of 1765.

© 2025 History of the Book 2024


Academic Technology services: GIS | Media Center | Language Exchange

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑