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.