Enslaved Printers?

Did enslaved workers assist in the printing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 America? I made the bold assertion recently, recorded in a television clip, that they did. In my Instagram post the next day, the only evidence I could produce was that of the second printing of the Declaration by printer Mary Katharine [sic] Goddard in Baltimore in 1777 [the first printing to list the signer’s names, as well as Goddard’s as printer]. I had heard rumors that Goddard was a slave owner. Although no letters of Goddard’s survive, we do know that in her will in 1816 she left her business and all her goods to her “female slave, Belinda Starling.” This information is not very helpful, as Ms. Starling was not around in 1776 and in 1784 Goddard’s printing establishment and publishing projects were taken from her by her brother William. She continued to serve Baltimore as postmaster until 1789 and then operated a bookshop until her death.

Mary Katherine Goddard’s printer’s notice at the bottom of the second printing of the Declaration of Independence, Baltimore, 1777. [New York Public Library]

So my investigation of Mary Katharine Goddard was a dead end. Hopefully others will shed more light on her life and business.

On July 26, 1776, Alexander Purdie, a printer in Williamsburg, Virginia would reprint the text of the Dunlap Broadside on the front page of his version of the newspaper, the Virginia Gazette. [I say “his version” because at that time printing was quite popular in Williamsburg and there were three different Virginia Gazettes published by three different printers each week!]

Close up of the first column of the July 26, 1776 Virginia Gazette. The text reproduced from John Dunlap’s printing of the Declaration of Independence from Philadelphia, July 4 and 5, 1776. Printed at Alexander Purdie’s printing office in Williamsburg, Virginia. [Rockefeller Library, Colonial Williamsburg]

When Alexander Purdie died three years later in 1779, his estate listed the ownership of 13 enslaved persons, six men and seven women. Purdie was not the only Williamsburg printer to own humans. Williamsburg’s first printer, William Parks, had also held 13 unfortunate people in bondage. Upon his death in 1752, nine men and four women were listed in his estate. Eight years later, at the death of printer Joseph Doyle in 1766, he was reported to own with William Hunter “two negro men named Matt and Aberdeen” who were listed with the printing equipment and supplies of the printing office.

Were these enslaved individuals required to work in their owners’ business enterprises? It seems unlikely that they would not have been. None of the printers listed above were listed as owning agricultural tools at their deaths, so it is doubtful these people were enslaved for the horrid plantation work required of so many others in this economy. Perhaps they were “rented” to other businesses, but I believe it very likely they assisted in various tasks in the printing office. It would be interesting to discover to what extent they may have been educated for this purpose and have been able to assist with type composition. Certainly the job of inking the press form, hanging the sheet of paper on the tympan, and pulling the handle of the press required but a moment’s training. And this repetitive, onerous work might be conducted from dawn until dusk at the expected rate of one “token” per hour [240 sheets…that’s fifteen seconds per sheet on a two-pull press.]

The evidence remains circumstantial. Further research into primary documents from the printers of Williamsburg (purchase records, account books, letters, even a thorough reading and cataloging of the contents of the various versions of the Virginia Gazette] might reveal more about how the labor required in the several printing offices was divided. It is time we understand the role of enslaved persons owned by printers in eighteenth and early nineteenth century America. I believe it is very likely that enslaved workers were directly involved in the printing of those world-changing words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal…”

SOURCES

Archives of Maryland (Biographical Series), Mary Katherine Goddard (1738-1816), www.msa.maryland.gov

Parke Rouse, The Printer in Eightenth-Century Williamsburg, Project Gutenberg EBook

Virginia Gazette, Purdie, July 26, 1776 - pg 1, Rockefeller Library Collections, Colonial Williamsburg

Colonial Williamsburg Digital Libaries, Estate Inventories

BookBeetle Woodtype

Photos of my brand new type face designed just for the BookBeetle Press. I named it BookBlossom. The BookBeetle is very popular for use in schools and institutions, so I wanted to create materials which could be used with students without the danger of exposing them to lead.

Woodtype, as letterpress enthusiasts know, is very common in letterpress, but usually in larger sizes. My challenge with the type was to make something small enough that short sentences could be created, and basic enough that children could compose the type and create the lockup without needing much instruction.

The result is a 48pt type (“4-line” in wood type terminology). Most woodtype you will find is no smaller than 60pt. BookBlossom is what is called a monospaced font, all characters the exact same set width. I include wooden “M spaces” (full size spaces) and “N spaces” (half sized spaces) and 12 pt line spacing in two different lengths.

I think it is a very nice introduction to typesetting and letterpress printing for the beginner. I have included a photo of a sample of a type specimen sheet being printed with it.

The price for 140 pieces of type (a “5A” font), the letterspacing and the line spacing all in a nifty slide top wooden box I designed is $650.

Cutting BookBlossom type in endgrain beech with a CNC router. This is an all caps monospaced font designed for introducing students to typesetting. The type meets the exact specifications of standard letterpress woodtype and can be used interchangeably on any letterpress.

Example of lockup with BookBlossom type and a sample of its use for printing a small broadside.

BookBlossom comes in a specially made type box, easily stackable with additional type boxes.

The BookBlossom font comes with M space and N space letterspacing and two lengths of pica sized linespacing.

Inking Without A Roller...

The ubiquitous ink roller or brayer is really a newcomer to the world of printing. For centuries ink balls were used to “roll” out ink by rubbing their surfaces together. When the thin film of ink was just right, this gently pliable surface was used to dab the ink onto the surface of the type and images locked up in the press bed. “Dab” is perhaps not the right verb as the individual doing the inking was called a “beater” and the process involved some force and a great deal of speed. I recently created small, replica ink balls for use with the BookBeetle Press. These accurately recreate the experience of rolling the ink around between the balls, one held in each hand, to create a smooth thin layer. Ink balls were made of a thin soft layer of wet leather, well wrung out, and stretched over firm wool stuffing. The leather was held in place on wooden ball stocks with tacks. The leather coverings would lose their effectiveness if allowed to dry out, so they were stored covered with liquid. Many printing historians describe this liquid as “chamber lye” or urine, but I prefer to use water and happily store my ball covers in a plastic container in the freezer for longer periods between printing. These miniature ink balls give a perfect introduction to the process of inking the wooden screw press. Civilization relied on this simple technology for the printing of the entire collection of books in Western culture for 350 years! I now sell ink balls along with the BookBeetle Press to enhance the printing experience for educators and artisans. A set of two balls is $90.

Printmaking Simplified!

The BookBeetle Press was designed to replicate the 18C wooden screw press. It’s tympan and frisket model the same parts on a full-size wooden common press. This is GREAT for teaching students early printing processes. But print makers like myself have found the tympan and frisket process can be sped up considerably. By removing the hinge mechanism and just stacking the tympan and frisket onto a base with sides, playing with the inking and printing is a lot easier. The BookBeetle now ships with an additional Box Chase for printing from type or relief blocks. It also comes with a Box Base for printing from a linoleum or photopolymer sheet. A wonderful advantage of these “fenced” bases is the way they simplify multicolor printing by providing exact register on a 9 x 12 printing sheet which can slip into the fenced area. A demo of printing with these new bases can be viewed on the Instagram page @bookbbeetlepress.

The Box Chase provides a “fence” around the chase to hold the frisket, printing sheet, tympan, and platen.

CyberGoose!

The Wayzgoose! A fun word for an ancient printing ritual. A printer held a wayzgoose to celebrate the employees in a print shop. Traditionally held on St. Bartholomew’s Day (August 24), it was thought to also coincide with the need for candles in the print shop as days grew shorter.

Today, letterpress printers use the word to refer to a celebration for socializing and mutual support. The American Printing History’s Chesapeake Chapter will hold a Cybergoose version of the wayzgoose for this very purpose during our current Covid crisis shutdown. One member used the BookBeetle press to print this flyer for sharing (virtually) through email. He commented, “I love my BookBeetle, now more than ever. I'm alone in my apartment, but I have my press so I'm not lonesome.”

Courage, Compassion, Creativity

A dear friend, on the faculty of the Delaware College of Art and Design, shared his work this weekend on the BookBeetle. Good words as we each begin our period of Covid isolation in earnest. He finds play and experimentation on the Beetle an excellent distraction from all of the rest. I, too, have stacked up a number of projects for myself to begin on the Beetle. I will share them here as the days go by. You are welcome to email me at josef@josefbeery.com to share your own stories and photos of your projects. Courage, Compassion, and Creativity for us all…

Virgin pieces of Clarendon Craw from the type case of a member of the Chesapeake Chapter of the American Printing History Association. A finger-tight lock up in the wooden chase of a BookBeetle is best. Those powerful antique quoins would happily bust right out of there!

Excellent advice for the home-bound artist.

BookBeetles Ship!

Three boxes ready to get their shipping labels and to be dropped off at UPS! Each box is carefully packed with the wooden press, a wooden chase, a wooden base, a set of furniture, enough materials for building 6 tympans and friskets, and a 36pp illustrated manual. BookBeetle presses are on their way to Massachusetts, Kentucky, Colorado, Michigan, and Richmond, Virginia! In several days I will ship two more to California and Minnesota. Its been a fabulous fall designing and building these wonderful little machines.

The press comes apart into five pieces and is easily assembled with just six bolts. I pack each piece carefully in bubble wrap for shipping to the new owner.

The presses were built by my friend and cabinetmaker, Jeff Saine of Charlottesville, Virginia. Built of solid maple and solid birch plywood with a 1-1/8" steel vise screw they are unquestionably durable. They receive lots of compliments, most often, “What a beautiful little press!" I never thought of it as a particularly aesthetic design, working mostly on making a press which works simply and efficiently that can be built by anyone.

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Assembling the first set of ten BookBeetles from the parts built by Jeff. The second photo shows me attaching the nut to the head to create the head assembly. I bolt each press together and test it out before moving them to my studio for disassembly and packing into their boxes for UPS shipping. At 37lbs the presses are just big enough to print well while still being small enough to easily move.

The assembled BookBeetles and a press ready to print!

BookBeetle Excels at Block Printing

Trying out the BookBeetle to print a small edition of a woodcut. I lock the woodcut up in the wooden form with pieces of furniture and wooden quoins (all provided with a BookBeetle purchase). After attaching a new piece of frisket to the tympan and attaching both to the form, I inked up the woodcut and took a light impression to mark the frisket. I removed the frisket and using a craft knife cut out the inked portion, creating a protective covering for the printing sheet.

I am using Rives Lightweight, a very nice 100% cotton printing sheet. Lighter weight sheets work best with the BookBeetle, requiring less pressure. I look forward to trying Asian papers which I think will perform well. I position the sheet size on the book board tympan and glue on paper corners to hold the sheet. Two corner are sufficient, but I am thinking of using three when doing multicolor woodcuts to guarantee the best registration. (I am thinking about the three point registration used for Japanese multicolor woodcuts…the third point will prevent fishtailing of the sheet.)

A smooth, even inking with a brayer and a quick pull of the BookBeetle lever produces a beautiful print! Its a very satisfying process, requiring far less elbow grease than a baren and creating consistently good prints. Inking and packing can be adjusted to create interesting grades and multi-color effects.