Article October 5, 1899 Issue

The First American Printing-Press

BY ERNEST INGERSOLL

The New Voice

It was a matter of very great interest to me to learn that the first printing-press brought into North America—the very one upon which parts of Eliot's Indian Bible were printed—still exists at Montpelier, Vt., in the careful custody of the Vermont Historical Society. It would indeed be difficult to find in the whole country an authentic relic more worthy of patriotic attention or one so identified with and typical of American ideas and development.

The machine as I saw it a few months ago was briefly labeled with a few general notes on its age and origin, and no one then accessible to me was able to tell me more. I resolved, therefore, to attempt to substantiate its claim and trace its history, and this I have succeeded in doing.

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