University of Virginia Library

Belcher & Armstrong Set Up Shop: 1805
Rollo G. Silver

ON an April day in Boston in 1798, a boy celebrated his fourteenth birthday by deciding that the time had come to escape from his unendurable lot in life. After his father's death, his mother had placed him with his uncle, and the youngster at this time was working in his uncle's Boston paint shop. Little Samuel T. Armstrong, waiting on trade, grinding paints, lugging the family groceries, blacking boots in the cold winter nights, bitterly determined to win independence. Chancing to see an advertisement

for a printer's apprentice, the boy called, one evening after work, at the office of Manning & Loring on Spring Lane. He explained his plans to James Loring, offering to make his own agreement, and showed so much ambition and promise that, in spite of the novelty of the arrangement, he was promptly signed on as an apprentice.[1] In February, 1800, when Joseph T. Buckingham arrived at Manning & Loring as journeyman printer, he found Armstrong still the youngest apprentice: "His duty (like that of all youngest apprentices) was to kindle the fires, sweep the floor, pick up the scattered types, distribute pi, and tread the pelts,--an operation exceedingly filthy and disgusting."[2] And, as Buckingham recollects, he "passed through this state of tribulation," finishing his time of service in April, 1805.

He remained at Manning & Loring as journeyman for approximately six months, but the job did not satisfy him. Nor did being a journeyman printer satisfy his friend Joshua Belcher, twenty-one years old, who had just served his time on the Independent Chronicle. Belcher and Armstrong, therefore, decided to enter into partnership as book and job printers. They bought the Boston Magazine from Gilbert & Dean and in October, 1805, opened their printing office on the second floor of an old building at 70 State Street.[3]

The expenses incurred in the establishment of this office are itemized in the final pages of Armstrong's journal. The list contains needed information about the economy of nineteenth-century American printing, and it is presented in the hope of stimulating the publication of similar material. The text is printed in full, but deletions and insertions are not noted and punctuation has been changed for purposes of clarification:

Page [1]:
Belcher & Armstrong, began Oct. 21, 1805
The expense of their office is annexed, according to the bills --- --- ---

• 1 Press of Adam Ramage...............................$ 136.00
• 322wt Brevier, a 73...................................... 235.06
• 330 Long Primer a 53.................................. 174.90
• 335 Pica a 41......................................... 137.35
• 68 Great Primer a 38.................................. 25.84
• 74 Double Pica a 38.................................... 28.12
• 6 English Flowers a 38.................................. 2.28
• 2..14 Brevier two lines letters 38 1.09
• 3.. 8 Long Prim do do 1.33
• 5.. Pica do do 1.97
• 6 L. Prim flowers a 53 ......... 3.18
• 5 Brevier do 73......................................... 3.65
• Boxes ....................................... 3.80

2d Importation of imperfections &c.

• 17..10 Long Primer a 53 ................................ 9.33
• 4..13 Pica 41 .......................................... 1.97
• 47.. French Coennon 38 ................................ 17.86
• 26..6 Quotations 36 .................................... 9.49
• 30.. Scabbards " ...................................... 10.80

Page [2]:

• 2d Press of A. Ramage ..............................$ 135.00
• 41 Cases & 2 gallies............................... 43.00
• Stands and other gallies as bills .................... 44.50
• Cotton & Marston's bill[4]...... 24.00
• 1 Stand ................................................ 5.00
• Sticks &c. ........................................... 6.00
• trough ................................................ 7.00
• Stove, shovel & tongs.............................. 7.00
• Chases 5.............................................. 28.00
• Sundries ............................................. 25.00
• ----
• 1,137.00[5]
• a bank ................................................ 5.50
• 2 sticks & 1 royal chase............................ 12.00
• Brev. open 2 line letters & flowers
  and english letters, rules, &c. .................. 14.00
• Font of Script & Cases............................ 42.80
• Double rule & single do for Alk. and other purposes.. 15.00
• do .................................................. 5.00
• Lamps & Cord ...................................... 1.25

Page [3]:
Expences of their Office (continued)

• Imposing stone ..............D10.00
• Duodecimo leads ............. 15.00
• Flowered Rules .............. 1.00
• Lothian's bills for large flowers for open letter
  & several other kinds[6]............ 12.00
• Russell & Cutler for 3 fonts Black Type viz. D.P. G.P. & L. Primer & 3 pairs Cases[7] .............. 30.50
• Charles Spear for 2 pairs old Cases[8] .............. 3.00
• 2 Crown Chases .............. 3.50
• Oliver & Monroe for royal chase[9] .............. 5.00
• Gilbert & Dean for Pigeon Holes[10] .............. 10.00
• Thos Foster jun for paper poles ....................... 9.50
• To Abner Wood for bill Exchange on Peter
  Wynne & Son for types &c &c ................... 444.44
• 18 mo leads. wt a 56 cents...... 12.60
• Small Chase ................. 2.33

Page [4]:
Expenses of the Office-continued

• English importation from Mess. Peter &
  W. Wynne amounted to ......................$ 623.69
• Duties on the same to 88.00
• Bond $1--Truckage $1.............. 2.00
• pair Cases &c.mmat; 2$
• Shelves for Books, &c
• Oct. 8, 1807
• 566wt Long Primer a
• Ten lines Pica a
• 5 lines Do a
• Whole amt of types of Wynne & Co.
• $602.11
• June 2, 1808 Phineas Harding came
  to be apprenticed to B & A
  16 years old Nov. 9 1807[11]
• Joseph Ballister
  15 years old July 27, 1808

This text discloses that the establishment of a modest printing office even for two journeymen required a considerable amount of capital investment.

Furthermore, it must be noted that, in addition to the British importation mentioned here, some type was purchased from Binny & Ronaldson, for soon after the opening of business Belcher & Armstrong advertised an "elegant" assortment of type from the "American Foundery."[12] And they also announced that the Boston Magazine was printed with type manufactured in this country.[13] The Boston Magazine was succeeded by the Emerald, another literary magazine which was published from May, 1806, to October, 1807, when it was sold to Oliver C. Greenleaf.

The major work of the office seems to have been devoted to books, job work, and pamphlets. In 1807, the firm joined with Oliver & Munroe to issue the first Boston edition of Shakespeare's Poems. Independently, they issued James Montgomery's Wanderer of Switzerland [1807?], William H. Brown's Ira and Isabella (1807), G. W. Fitzwilliam's Pleasures of Love (1808), and other books. For one pamphlet, the Trial of Thomas O. Selfridge [1807], the partners showed their resourcefulness by obtaining professional reporters from New York or Philadelphia since there were none in Boston. [14] Despite such enterprise, the printing business continued to be a financial struggle. In April, 1808, they formed a publishing association with W. P. Farrand, D. Mallory, and J. Morse, and moved the Belcher & Armstrong print shop to the floor above the bookstore of Farrand, Mallory & Co.[15] There they published the Panoplist, a religious and missionary magazine, but business was unprofitable, and in December, 1808, the firm of Belcher & Armstrong was dissolved. Though there was much pamphlet and job work, Armstrong declared in his journal, it enabled him to clear nothing—"probably not so much as journeyman's wages for 3 yrs. & 3 mos."

Joshua Belcher lived in Boston as a printer until he died in New York on September 4, 1816, at the age of 32.[16] Armstrong set up a printing office in Charlestown, eventually opening a bookstore at 50 Cornhill, Boston, about 1811. There he acquired the wealth and public esteem he desired. Not only did he retire a rich and independent man, but he served the community as Representative to the General Court, State Senator, Lieutenant Governor, and Mayor of Boston. Armstrong died in 1850, a prototype of the Horatio Alger hero who raised himself from rags to riches by the correct combination of business acumen and virtue.[17]

Notes