trying to identify 1860s equipment

I am working with a museum in Columbia, SC that would like to highlight the vibrant print industry here in the 1870s. The Daily Phoenix newspaper ran an advertisement for its printing services on 11/10/1869, p. 1 that showed two “cuts” of printing presses. These may have been stock images, but the illustration of the building in the same ad was definitely an accurate pic of the Phoenix building, so I’m hoping that so are the images of the presses. The Daily Phoenix is readily available on the Library of Congress “Chronicling America” website. I’d be tremendously grateful if anyone could look at the advertisement and tell me something about the presses shown, or could otherwise help in identifying the kinds of equipment likely to have been used in Columbia in the 1870s. Many thanks, Thomas Brown, Dept of History, University of South Carolina

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For the sake of convenience, here’s the newspaper page that Prof. Brown refers to, first in PDF format (1.3 Meg) and then in PNG format (29 Meg):

http://www.galleyrack.com/temp/cdp-1869-11-10-p1.pdf
http://www.galleyrack.com/temp/cdp-1869-11-10-p1.png

I’ll try to attach small versions of the images of the presses themselves to this posting, but they’re very poor images.

I must thank you for bringing the LoC Chronicling America site to our attention; I had not been familiar with it. This makes at least four LoC sites of great interest to letterpress printers (the others are the Prints & Photographs collection, the Printed Ephemera site, and the Rare Books Reading Room Digital Collections:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/rbpehtml/
http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/digitalcoll.html

Regards,
David M.
www.CircuitousRoot.com

image: cdp-1869-11-10-press2-shrink.png

cdp-1869-11-10-press2-shrink.png

image: cdp-1869-11-10-press1-shrink.png

cdp-1869-11-10-press1-shrink.png

The platen press looks like the Liberty Jobber, the second one looks like an Adams Bed Press manufactured by Hoe. See James Moran’s Book “Printing Presses” pages 115 for the Adams Bed Press and http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/Har04Typo-fig-Har04Typo145c.htm... for the Liberty Jobber. The Adams looks like a cylinder press but isn’t. Also check here for more detail on the Liberty: http://letterpressprinting.com.au/page22.htm

Check http://letterpressprinting.com.au/page17.htm for the adams bed press. The liberty jobber would have been used like C&P would today, specifically for tickets, stationary, smaller business forms, etc… The Adams bed press for posters, larger forms like newspapers, some book work, multiple n-up forms. Both probably belt driven. Both are period correct.

Thanks, David, for turning me on to the LoC Rare Book Collection. Now I know how to spend the season’s remaining cold winter nights online! At first perusal I noticed that Denslow’s Mother Goose is Ex Libris of the Frederic & Bertha Goudy Collection….

image: Mother Goose.jpg

Mother Goose.jpg

Same newspaper; slightly earlier date (July 13, 1869) shows a (marked) R Hoe Cylinder Press. It is different from the two described earlier in this thread. Assume the illustration is of a hand cranked model since there is a handle on the wheel and no steam pulley attached. Since the illustration of the press is on the old-style frame it could pre-date this newspaper issue by 25-35+/- years. This press could only print on one side at a time. Later models were capable of printing on both sides.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84027008/1869-07-13/ed-1/seq-4/...

Fred Otto Degener began building the Liberty in New York in 1859-60. By 1869 he was offering presses with chases up to 13x19. The above cut of the Liberty appears to be the same as the one reproduced as #10 in our article in The Journal of the PHS New Series #10, 2007, p. 28. I would have to say that both cuts are “stock cuts”, probably furnished by the press manufacturers.

Bob Oldham

Thank you very much for those wonderfully swift and informative replies; it is a treat to come into contact with this community. I am embarrassed to have discovered after posting that the Phoenix on 4/20/1873 advertised presses “of the most approved patterns—Hoe, Adams and Liberty—including Platen Bed and Cylinder.” This information seems to confirm all of the deductions posted.

Googling around a little, it seems Liberty jobbers sometimes become available and that the museum might hope to acquire one and also Liberty letters, cuts, dingbats, etc. I will put a note in the Classified section and be grateful for any other leads.

I enjoyed seeing the youtube video of the Liberty press in operation, and I wonder if there are any comparable videos of the much larger Adams press in operation. I didn’t find one on youtube.

Thank you very much for those wonderfully swift and informative replies; it is a treat to come into contact with this community. I am embarrassed to have discovered after posting that the Phoenix on 4/20/1873 advertised presses “of the most approved patterns—Hoe, Adams and Liberty—including Platen Bed and Cylinder.” This information seems to confirm all of the deductions posted.

Googling around a little, it seems Liberty jobbers sometimes become available and that the museum might hope to acquire one and also Liberty letters, cuts, dingbats, etc. I will put a note in the Classified section and be grateful for any other leads.

I enjoyed seeing the youtube video of the Liberty press in operation, and I wonder if there are any comparable videos of the much larger Adams press in operation. I didn’t find one on youtube.