Several discharged convicts, including Eugene J. Norris desired to learn the printing trade upon release from prison. Printing was a rising trade in the nineteenth-century as is evident by the increase in newspapers ads and employment bulletins requesting the assistance of skilled printers. For example, in 1863, (later than Hopper’s time but it nonetheless correlated to the advertisements of Hopper’s era) Standard & Statesman, a printing business in Albany, posted an ad in the Directory requesting an artisan skilled in the printing trade.

The history of printing in New York is extensive and unique. In colonial New York in 1665, there were no printing businesses or large scale printing presses, therefore the printing of colonial laws and court documents was outsourced to Cambridge, Massachusetts or Pennsylvania, the two major printing centers in colonial America. Printing did not arrive in New York until 1693 when William Bradford, who had established a printing business in Pennsylvania, introduced the trade.[1] Bradford published the first printed work in the colony of New York, a one sheet portfolio entitled “The Proceedings of His Excellency Earle Bellmount, Governor of New York, and his council on the 8^th of May 1698”[2] After Bradford’s implementation of the printing press, printing became more prominent in New York, especially between 1720 and 1800. In this time, newspapers such as the New York Gazette, the New York Journal, the New York Mercury, and the New York Weekly were established.[3]

However, it was between 1800 and 1900 that the printing trade experienced the greatest transformation as technological advancements in the construction of printing presses allowed for greater efficiency. In turn, the greater efficiency reduced the prices of printed materials, making newspapers and novels more accessible to the lower classes. For instance, in 1847, New York printing business, Hoe & Co. invented and successfully operated a new printing press that resulted in twelve thousand printed sheets per hour as opposed to the customary four thousand sheets. The new invention by Hoe & Co. demonstrates the rising efficiency of the printing press and the ability to disseminate greater quantities of printed materials. The trade became nationalized and unionized in the mid-1800s for in 1846, the Associated Press formed when five New York Newspapers funded a pony express through Alabama in order to bypass delays in the U.S. Postal Service and quickly and efficiently distribute information about the Mexican-American War to Westerns and Northerners alike.[4] The development of the Associated Press created the first national printing organization in the United States. Only four years later, the printing business in New York was unionized with the formation of the NY Printers’ Union in 1850.[5]

[1] Thomas, Isaiah. History of Printing in America with a Biography of Printers, second ed. (New York, NY: Burt Franklin, 1874.) 290-291

[2] Thomas, 292

[3] Thomas, 293-313.

[4] “Our Story ½AP.” Associated Press. Accessed March 27, 2019 from https://www.ap.org/about/our-story/

[5] “History of Printing Timeline.” American Printing History Association. Accessed March 27, 2019 from https://printinghistory.org/timeline/