The Massachusetts Spy Moves to Worcester, Loses Readers, Never Returns to Boston
Without any mention in the issue, the 1775 April 6 edition of Isaiah Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy — featuring the famous serpent “Join or Die” cartoon in the name plate — was his last from Boston. As the colophon states, it was printed at the “South-Corner of MARSHALL’s-LANE, leading from the MILL-BRIDGE into UNION STREET,” Boston. ...
The War of the Gazettes and the Dark Ages of the American Newspaper
“From the vantage point of the twentieth century, journalism historians look back on the period between 1789 and 1808 as the ‘dark ages’ of the American newspaper.” This great line leads the third chapter — titled Weapons in the Great Debate — of John Tebbel’s Compact History of the American Newspaper. “The golden age of ...
John Dunlap’s Proposal for Launching a Colonial Newspaper
To help launch his colonial Philadelphia newspaper, John Dunlap turned to his brethren printers in Boston to publish “proposals for printing by subscription, a weekly news-paper, entitled The Pennsylvania Packet, And General Advertiser.” The inaugural issue of Dunlap’s newspaper was printed printed on October 28. Dunlap was the printer of the first copies of the ...
William Caslon, 18th Century Typographer
William Caslon I (1692-1766) was an English gunsmith and typographer. His typefaces, particularly his roman typeface that eventually took his own name, was an instant success. Historians have said that Caslon gave England a national typeface. By the mid 18th century, printers all across Europe and the American colonies were using the Caslon typeface to ...
Colonial Newspapers: Unsung Heroes of the American Revolution
Colonial newspapers are unsung heroes of the American Revolution and the Revolutionary War. Specifically, several newspapermen and women deserve recognition for their role in America’s founding, including: Benjamin Edes and John Gill, Boston Gazette Isaiah Thomas, Massachusetts Spy William Goddard, Pennsylvania Chronicle Peter Timothy, South Carolina Gazette Thomas Green, Connecticut Courant John Holt, New York ...
Frans Hogenberg: Engraving 16th Century News
Throughout Europe during the 1500s, experiments were made in printed news, such as illustrated news broadsides that appealed to a mostly illiterate population. Frans Hogenberg was the first to successfully build a career in illustrated journalism. According to the Hollstein Studies in Prints and Printmaking, Frans Hogenberg moved from England to Cologne in 1570 and ...
Benjamin Harris and his Publick Occurrences
On September 25, 1690, the first issue of Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick hit the streets of Boston. With that issue, Benjamin Harris published the first attempt at an American newspaper. Harris intended for his newspaper to be printed monthly. It contained four pages — three with printed news and a blank one for ...
The First Tax on Newspapers
In August, 1712, the first tax on newspapers was imposed, an attempt by English government to suppress the booming print media industry and eliminate small papers that were most vocal in opposition of the government — a less direct form of censorship. This uniquely untrimmed October 14, 1712 issue of the Spectator, published by Richard ...
