The Distinction of 18th Century American Paper

Despite the abundance of lumber in 18th century America, the technological and chemical combination for making wood pulp paper wasn’t discovered until the mid-19th century.  During the 18th century and first two-thirds of the 19th century, American newspapers were printed on paper made from linen rags.  Pictured below are 10 American newspapers dated between 1750 and 1796, each printed on rag linen paper.  Notice each paper’s distinct characteristics — shape, size, color, texture, etc.

According to J.L. Bell’s Boston 1775 blog, colonial “printers collected [rag linen] to give to their paper-makers so they could eventually have more paper to print on. Particularly during the war, when imports from Britain were scant, newspapers contained a lot of advertisements asking homemakers to bring in scraps of linen for recycling.”

Colonial printers were more likely to print newspapers and pamphlets on American-made paper while importing higher-quality English or Dutch paper for their most important jobs (i.e., book printing and perhaps the most newsworthy items).  According to The Colonial Printer by Lawrence C. Wroth:

It must be understood that the paper made in colonial America, especially in the early days, was not the finest in quality. The word “handmade” has a connotation in these days that dazzles the intelligence even of persons ordinarily unimpressed by shibboleths. The American paper of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, handmade, of course, from rags, was an honest paper, tough and durable in general, but as variable in quality as one would expect from indifferent materials handled by provincial workmen in rude manufactories.

The variance in quality didn’t dilute its durability.  Thanks to the strength and sturdiness of “homemade” rag linen paper, the first drafts of colonial America’s most historical events are often well preserved in printed form. It’s these historic accounts, printed on the pages of newspapers, that come to life in the Rag Linen blog.