Kaya Karpati

2016 – 2017

Printing with Power: Printing in Early America 

Social class would determine how cultures would interact with printing. The social class with the most power, the English settlers, used the printing press the most. The Native Americans did not have a written language therefore they did not have much use for printing materials. The settlers used the printing press for many things. The first printers at Jamestown were white, English males. They took advantage of the freedom of the press to spread their ideas and stay in power. When the African-Americans would run away, to show rebellion, the printer would run advertisements to help catch them. This shows that the English used the printing press to stay “superior” to the other cultures who did not have access to the press.

 

 

Gwen Raffo

2015

Bookbinding and Printing Started the Revolution – Colonial Research Paper

Concluding paragraph: The bookbinders and printers were some of the most important trades in Colonial America. A lot of what we know about the Colonial Era come from prints and books made in that time. Even though it took many hours of labor to complete one book, that one book might have given us a whole new look on the Colonial Era. Someone could have written a journal entry that eliminated a theory on Colonial America. Prints and pamphlets could have been preserved and proved what actually happened in Williamsburg. They give us medical records to show what kind of medicine was practiced. They give us court records to show exactly who was punished and why. Bookbinding and printing weren’t trades used by Native Americans and Africans. Some African slaves read, and Natives told stories. No matter how stories and books were used, they all were unquestionably important to the development of Colonial Virginia. All forms of storytelling and spreading ideas, were what started the revolution. Every single printer, bookbinder, storyteller, and slave that read were crucial to change in early America. What would it be like now if there were no colonial bookbinders and printers? What would be different today?

Caleb KB
2015

Printing in the Colonial Era

The work that the printers printed greatly influenced the colonial people. It spread ideas and impacted people through pamphlets and newspapers and other items that were printed. Printing cost a lot of money and required a lot of tools. There were tools like the stick, and type and casing.It took a lot of time but people still printed, even if it meant doing something that they would later regret or get in trouble for. Today, printing presses are no longer used, and other things have taken it’s place, things like computers and printers. They have the same function, making it easier to write and print and are used as frequently, if not more than the press that came before it.

Kaya Karpati

2016 – 2017

Female Printers in Colonial America

Source:

American History Online . Facts On File .

Quote:

Colonial women played a key role in the colonial American printing business since its inception. Mrs. Joseph Glover opened a printing business after her husband’s death, owning the first printing press in America. It was established in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1638. Sarah Updike Goddard (c.1700–70) and her daughter Mary Katherine (1738–1816) were two of the most prominent female printers in the colonies. Sarah came from a prominent Rhode Island family. She funded her son William’s training in the printing business with her inheritance after the death of her husband. The printing business soon became a family affair. Sarah became the printer of the  Providence Gazette  in Rhode Island.

 

Paraphrase:

– Females were major in the Printing business.

– Inherited business.

– Cambridge, Massachusetts aka Modern day Harvard.

– Had Money, Funded sons Printing Training.

– Printing became 

– A FEMALE became the printer of PROVIDENCE GAZETTE in Rhode Island.

My Ideas:

WOMEN played a role in printing. This is important because being a printer is very important. Printing involves a lot of hard work. These women were a very important part of printing. They are obviously capable and inherited it from the death of her husband. Her husband owned the first printing press in America which was a big deal but Sarah Updike Goddard really promoted the printing business, not just for women. She seems like a strong character, I bet some people would sell the printer and carry on with there lives. Not Sarah, she took the bull by the horns and showed the world of printing who was boss. In return, she was able to master printing and became the printer of the  Providence Gazette  and eventually passed down the business.

History:

Created: 11/02/2016 01:15 PM

 

 

 

Gwen Raffo
2015

Thomas Paine
Source: <http://online.infobase.com/HRC/Search/Details/202144?q=book%20maker%20apprenticeship>

Quote:

“Paine was a transatlantic revolutionary and the most influential pamphleteer of his time. His essay, Common Sense (1776), had a profound impact on the course of the American Revolution.”

“Paine arrived in the colonies when the quarrel with Britain was reaching a fever pitch. After the Battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775), Paine began to articulate the idea that the colonies should free themselves from Great Britain. In January 1776 Paine anonymously published Common Sense in which he argued for independence. Written in a plain and accessible style that reflected his artisan roots, the pamphlet was a huge success, selling more than 120,000 copies in its first year. In Common Sense Paine argued for the virtues of a republic over a monarchy and the equality of rights among all citizens. During the course of the war that followed, Paine published 16 ‘Crisis’ papers. The first issue opened with the stirring words: ‘These are the times that try men’s souls.'”

Paraphrase:

• Thomas Paine impacted the American Revolution a lot by writing his book about equality of rights.
• There were more than 120,000 copies sold in the first year.
• He published the book anonymously so he wouldn’t get in trouble for talking about how unfair the rules are.
• The pamphlet talked about how he wanted equality and everything to be fair.

My Ideas: Thomas Paine was very brave. He had to have been brave to put a pamphlet out into the world about how he wanted everything to be fair and that essentially the rule makers should change their ways. Although, he wasn’t brave enough to sign the book in his name. He made the book anonymously so he wouldn’t get in trouble about saying the things he said in the pamphlet. Not that many people would have been brave enough to put their lives on the line just so people knew that they wrote a pamphlet. I wonder what exactly what he said in the pamphlet. Did he ever wonder what would happen if he got caught for writing the pamphlet? How did people find out that Thomas Paine wrote the pamphlet?

CALEB KB
2015

The Stick and Setting Type
Bibliography: Fisher, Leonard Everett. Colonial American Craftsmen the Printers. New York: Franklin Watt, 1965. Print. Page: 32

Quote:

“When he had finished placing a single line in the stick, space the letters and words out with slivers of brass so that the line would reach an exact measured length. Then went on to the next line of type. When the composing stick was filled with lines all the same length, he removed them into a metal pan called a gallery. Compositor had filled the gallery with enough time to make one printed page, it was inked and a rough print or proof was made of it.  This gallery proof was used to make any corrections or changes before the final printing.”

“After all the pages to be printed had been corrected, the set type was transferred from the galleries to a large, perfectly flat and smooth slab of stone. They’re the type was put into a large metal frame, or Chase, and was locked into place so tightly that it could not fall out. Sometimes the printer locked up one page, sometimes two pages, but rarely more than four. It all depended on the job being done, and the sides of the press. The pages locked into the chase or called the form.”

Paraphrase: The stick is a long wooden stick like object that was used by colonial printers to hold the type after the printers took it would. Each letter and work was placed in between little slivers of brass used to separate the different letters and words so that the final project wouldn’t be a jumbled mess. When the printer had used all of the stick, they made another stick, until they had a full page of type that they would print. They placed the sticks into a metal pan called a gallery, which was used to ink the type while still on a stick, and proof print and read the work. After that, if all were successful, they would gently reset the type onto a stone slab and put into a metal frame called a chase. Inside of the chase it was locked into place to make sure that it couldn’t fall out. Then the page was printed. Sometimes a page or two was printed but rarely over four pages at a time.

My Ideas: How many letters could fit onto one stick at a time? The quote says that they are measured by letters and I can infer that it is to make sure that the final product looks very neat and orderly because it took so much time to make. Then the type is put into the gallery and is printed on, but is it printed on the press. I wouldn’t think so because it takes so much time to work the press, plus, the gallery isn’t connected to the press itself, so I understand, meaning that the gallery, not the type, had a possibility of falling off. Based on that, I can infer that it was done by hand and they just used the ink balls on the gallery, then used another contraption to press on it, to make sure that all of the ink spreads so you can read. This is only a guess though, and they may just use the normal press and put it chase.

CALEB KB
2015

Casing and Type
Bibliography: Fisher, Leonard Everett. Colonial American Craftsmen the Printers. New York: Franklin Watt, 1965. Print.
Page: 30

Quote:

“However large or small the shop might be, after the type arrived the next job belong to the compositor. He placed the single pieces of type in specific shallow tray call a case. It was only an inch deep and was divided into two main sections. The upper section contained all the capital letters. Each kind of letter was put into a smaller section of its own, within the upper case.”

“The small letters were placed in their individual sections in the lower case. Hence the small letters are still known as lowercase letters.”

“The letters were not arranged alphabetically, but for convenience. Character that would be you is the most for a place nearest at hand. A beginning compositors first job was to “learn the case” — learn the location of the letters so that he could reach for them without even looking. “

Paraphrase: The composter was the guy that put all of the letters together. All of the letters, or type, was organized in one big box called casing. All of the letters were organized to make sure that the letters used more often were closer to your hand and easier to get. All of the upper case letters were placed on the top of the casing and that is why the letters are called upper case. The lower case letters were placed at the bottom of the casing and that is why they are called lower case.

My Ideas: I can infer that the printer would have to buy lots of different types of font and letters. I know already that there were more than 1000 words on a page but I wonder how many were the same letter and where they were put because of it. The book says a t one point something about how E would be closer to the hand than X because E was used more but that still doesn’t tell me where the E would be. I can infer that lower case was on the bottom because in a sentence, lower case letters are used more. If we know that lower case letters are closer to the hand by being at the bottom of the box, I can infer that all of the commonly used letter (separated by upper and lower case) were closer to the bottom of the casing so that they were easier to reach with the hand.

 

Gwen Raffo
2015

Interview with the Colonial Printer in Williamsburg – Bookbinding Shop
Basically, the printer is like a big stamp. It works the same way as a stamp so if I want to print a copy of that, the first thing I have to do is ink it. You use ink balls to put the ink on it. I rub them together to make sure the ink is spread out evenly over the surface of both. You now beat the ink onto top. It’s called beating. You grab the next sheet of paper and mount it in position now you fold the cover down then put out it under the press. Most of the ink, but not all of it, should now be on the paper. Once the sheets are printed on both sides, the paper is set to dry. Then the sheet is torn in half along a straight edge. Each half sheet can later be cut to the size of the book.

How long would it take to print a book?
It depends on the book. If it is just a small pamphlet then it would take a few days. To make a book, it might take weeks, or months or in an extreme case, maybe a year. The printing goes pretty quickly, but the book takes a long time. The biggest hold back is changing the letter blocks.  There are about 1,800 letter blocks on a small page. Just one page alone can take over an hour to set. There are 3 pages here so you are looking at 3 hours just to set 3 pages worth of letters.

Caleb KB
2015

Interview with the Williamsburg Printer – Print Shop

How would you get the paper?
Well most of the paper was shipped overseas from England until the war when we might not even get paper. For example, newspapers from before the war were bigger than during the war. We stopped printing the Gazette for a little bit because they literally ran out of paper.

How long would it take to make a Gazette and how many copies would you have to print?
The entire paper doesn’t have to be reset because some of the ads are the same, but some of the stories are different. 2/3 or 3/4 of the paper has to be reset. The bare minimum of papers that I would have to print is about 250-300 copies. In Virginia, if you print a new edition more than one time a week, then you wouldn’t make enough to make it worth it. Whereas in a large place like London, you could do it every day but of course you had to hire more workers. For a 16 page pamphlet, you would probably have to sell a few hundred copies to make it worth it. Now let’s say I’m doing a 300 page book, then I would have to sell several thousand copies. Do you think that people in Virginia will buy several thousand copies? No, probably not.

 

 

Lily M.

2015

Architecture and the houses builders built gave the Settlers a place to live, cook, sleep, and feel comfortable. They were all adapted to the environment, culture and social class in a way that made the houses perfect for each of it’s inhabitants. There were so many people living in so many different kind of houses that not one house was the same as another. There were English houses, like Chesapeake houses, New England houses, Williamsburg houses. There were then Dutch houses, Native American houses, Native African houses and Plantation slave quarters. Then there was the question of class. Upper class? Middling class? Lower class? Lastly, there was environment and weather. Whether it was hot or cold, damp or dry, sunny or rainy, houses were different. People building houses nowadays also take under consideration the same aspects as they did four hundred years ago, class, culture, weather and environment.