[BKARTS] First U.S. type foundry

["Jack C. Thompson" <tcl@TELEPORT.COM>]

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D.B. Updike, in his 2 vol. work, _Printing Types:
Their History, Forms, and Use_ (2nd ed., 1937) says:

        "The first regular American type-foundry was that of Christopher
Sauer or Sower II (son of a German printer of the same name), which was
started at Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1772."  vol. II, p. 151.

Although he mentions an entry from Benjamin Franklin's autobiography,
wherein he claimed to have "... contrived a mold, made use of letters we
had as puncheons, struck the matrices in lead, and thus supply'd in a
pretty tolerable way all deficiencies."  pp. 150-1.

Jack

(snip)

>It's an interesting notion about the used type. When and where was the first
>type foundry established in North America?
>
>--
>
> Richard
> http://www.minsky.com
> http://www.centerforbookarts.org


Thompson Conservation Lab.
7549 N. Fenwick
Portland, Oregon USA

503/735-3942  (ph/fax)

http://home.teleport.com/~tcl

"The lyfe so short; the craft so long to lerne."
Chaucer  _Parlement of Foules_ 1386

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