Cornelia Smith Bradford | |
|---|---|
| Born | Cornelia Smith |
| Died | 1755 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Printer, editor |
Cornelia Smith Bradford (died August 1755) was a printer and newspaper editor located in Philadelphia. She is one of only eleven American women known to have supported themselves as printers before the American Revolution. [2]
Born Cornelia Smith in New York City (date unknown), Cornelia grew up in a family of comfortable means. She married Andrew Bradford, son of William Bradford, both printers. [2] She was said to have been "remarkable for beauty and talents," though their marriage was said to be unhappy. [3] Andrew owned a print shop in Philadelphia as well as the American Weekly Mercury newspaper, founded in 1719.
Upon Andrew's death, Cornelia took over his printing press, shop, and management of his newspaper. In 1742/3, she hired one Isaiah Warner as an assistant, but from 1744 until the last issue of the Mercury on May 22, 1746, Cornelia was the sole editor and printer. [2] In addition the newspaper, her shop printed almanacs and various other publications. Cornelia was also a bookbinder and bookseller. She owned land in New York City, Philadelphia, and Germantown. In 1755, she died in Philadelphia and was buried in the Christ Church cemetery.
William Bradford was an early American colonial printer and publisher in British America. Bradford is best known for establishing the first printing press in the Middle colonies of the Thirteen Colonies, founding the first press in Pennsylvania in 1685 and the first press in New York in 1693. Bradford operated continuously printing establishments for sixty-two years, heading a family that would include printers and publishers for 140 years. He was also known for controversies regarding freedom of the press. Starting his printing career in London, Bradford emigrated to America in 1685. He established, with others, the first paper mill to appear in the Thirteen American Colonies.
Andrew Bradford was an early American printer in colonial Philadelphia. He published the first newspaper in Philadelphia, The American Weekly Mercury, beginning in 1719, as well as the first magazine in America in 1741.
John Peter Zenger (October 26, 1697 – July 28, 1746) was a German printer and journalist in New York City. Zenger printed The New York Weekly Journal. He was accused of libel in 1734 by William Cosby, the royal governor of New York, but the jury acquitted Zenger, who became a symbol for freedom of the press.
Benjamin Franklin Bache was an American journalist, printer and publisher. He founded the Philadelphia Aurora, a newspaper that supported Jeffersonian philosophy. He frequently attacked the Federalist political leaders, including Presidents George Washington and John Adams, and historian Gordon S. Wood wrote that "no editor did more to politicize the press in the 1790s." His paper's heated attacks are thought to have contributed to passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts by the 5th United States Congress and signed by President John Adams in 1798.
Cornelia Baxter Barns was an American illustrator, political cartoonist, painter, feminist, and socialist.
John Fenno was a Federalist Party editor among early American publishers and major figure in the history of American newspapers. His Gazette of the United States played a major role in shaping the beginnings of party politics in the United States in the 1790s.
William Rittenhouse was an American papermaker and businessman. He served as an apprentice papermaker in the Netherlands and, after moving to the Pennsylvania Colony, established the first paper mill in the North American colonies, helping to meet the growing demand for paper among the Early American publishers and printers. Rittenhouse married Geertruid Pieters of Eerbeck, Holland, in 1665, before emigrating to the Americas. Rittenhouse was also the first Mennonite bishop in America. Along with his two sons, and their descendants, the Rittenhouse family maintained a papermaking business in Pennsylvania for well over one hundred years. The site of the original mill is now preserved as the Historic RittenhouseTown district of Philadelphia.
TheNewport Mercury, was an early American colonial newspaper founded in 1758 by Ann Smith Franklin (1696–1763), and her son, James Franklin (1730–1762), the nephew of Benjamin Franklin. The newspaper was printed on a printing press imported by Franklin's father, James Franklin (1697–1735), in 1717 from London. The Mercury may be the first newspaper published by a woman in the colonial United States. The Mercury was the also first paper to publish poetry by an African American woman, Phillis Wheatley.
William Goddard was an early American patriot, publisher, printer and postal inspector. Born in New London, Connecticut, Goddard lived through the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War, during which he opposed British rule of the colonies through his actions and publications. He was a major figure in the development of the colonial postal system, which became the U.S. Post Office after the American Revolution.
Samuel Keimer (1689–1742) was originally an English printer and emigrant who came to America and became an Early American printer. He was the original founder of The Pennsylvania Gazette. On October 2, 1729, Benjamin Franklin bought this newspaper.
William Parks was an 18th-century printer and journalist in England and Colonial America. He was the first printer in Maryland authorized as the official printer for the colonial government. He published the first newspaper in the Southern American colonies, the Maryland Gazette. He later became authorized as the official printer for the colonial government of Virginia. Parks was also the publisher and printer of the first official collection of the authentic 1733 set of Virginia's laws, and the first colonial publisher and proprietor of The Virginia Gazette newspaper. During his lifetime Parks established four new newspapers in the colonies. He also worked with Benjamin Franklin on several projects related to printing, most notably, the establishment of a paper mill in Virginia, the first such mill south of Pennsylvania.
The Busy-Body was a pen name used by Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Breintnall in a column printed in The American Weekly Mercury, an early American newspaper founded and published by Andrew Bradford. There are 32 letters in "The Busy-Body" series. The essays were printed in 1729.
Hugh Gaine was an 18th-century early American printer, newspaper publisher and bookseller. He founded and was printer of The New York Mercury and the New York Royal Gazette. As a printer and journalist Gaine remained neutral when the idea of American independence was at issue, which became a source of trouble for him at times. Subsequently figures like Philip Freneau, a Revolutionary poet, had very little affection for Gaine, while some historians question his loyalties. During his time in New York City Gaine's printing business became the most prolific, lasting more than forty years.
Sarah Updike Goddard was an early American printer, as well as a co-founder and publisher of the Providence Gazette and Country Journal, the first newspaper founded in Providence, Rhode Island. She worked closely with her son William and daughter Mary Katherine, who both also became printers and publishers, forming one of the earliest influential publishing dynasties in the American colonies.
Alexander Aikman was a Scottish printer, newspaper publisher, planter, and member of Jamaica's House of Assembly. From 1805 to 1825, he was a member of the House of Assembly as the representative of Saint George parish.
Early American publishers and printers played a central role in the social, religious, political and commercial development of the Thirteen Colonies in British America prior to and during the American Revolution and the ensuing American Revolutionary War that established American independence.
Robert Bell (1732–1784) was a Scottish immigrant to the British colonies in America and became one of many early American printers and publishers active during the years leading up to and through the American Revolution. Bell became widely noted for printing Thomas Paine's celebrated work, Common Sense, a highly influential work during the revolution that openly criticized the British Parliament and their management and taxation of the British-American colonies. Bell and Paine later had a falling out over profits and publication issues. As a dedicated patriot, Bell printed many pamphlets and books before and during the revolution, many of which "glowingly" expressed his patriotic views. He also reprinted a number of popular English works, presenting them to the colonies for the first time. He ran an auction house which sold rare books in Lancaster, and in later life he toured the colonies selling off his massive book collection. After Bell's death, his printing press and other items were sold at a Philadelphia auction house to another prominent printer at an unusually high price.
Samuel Hall (1740-1807), was an Early American publisher and printer, newspaper editor, and an ardent colonial American patriot from Bedford, Massachusetts who was active in this capacity before and during the American Revolution, often printing newspapers and pamphlets in support of American independence. Hall was the founder of The Essex Gazette, the first newspaper published in Salem, Massachusetts in 1768. He often employed his newspaper as a voice supporting colonial grievances over taxation and other actions by the British Parliament that were considered oppressive, and ultimately in support of American independence.
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