January 25, 2018
This week the Printing House celebrated the 160thanniversary of our founding in January, 1858. But that date recognizesthe formal charter issued to the company by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Our object celebrates the fulfilment of that charter, when the company actuallyembossed its first tactile pages in 1866. This engraved print waspublished in the March 5, 1864edition of the Scientific American Magazine. It illustrates a unique ironprinting press, designed by famed designer Stephen P. Ruggles,specifically for APH. The disruptions caused by the Civil War delayed anyactual work on the press until an experimental edition of “A Book of Storiesand Fables for Children” by the English writer John Gay was embossed in 1866.
Photo caption: Engraving on paper of a four-leggediron printing press, with a large, spoked fly-wheel in the foreground connectedby gears to a central cylinder.Micheal HudsonMuseum Director, APH
