University of Virginia Library

Flash of the Comet: The Typographical Career of Samuel N. Dickinson
by
Rollo G. Silver

Although the name of Samuel N. Dickinson appears in the literature of nineteenth century printing, it is usually in reference to only a few of his many achievements. To De Vinne, he was a master printer who became a typefounder and introduced the Scotch face.[1] The American Dictionary of Printing and Bookmaking finds this aspect of Dickinson memorable and then states that his book, A Help to Printers and Publishers, was for many years "an indispensable one in all printing-offices."[2] Bigmore & Wyman refer to only two items: A Help to Printers and Publishers and his 1842 specimen book.[3] Yet here was a man regarded by his contemporaries as one of the best printers in the United States. In addition to his typefoundry, he owned one of the largest printing offices in the country, issued one of the first American technological journals, produced the first American periodical devoted to printing, compiled and printed a well-known series of almanacs, and was astute enough to discover and employ such men as Henry O. Houghton and the two John Wilsons. Unfortunately Dickinson's career ended in less than twenty years. Perhaps if he had lived long enough to have become venerable, he would have received greater attention from historians of printing.

To recount all of his various activities in one straight chronological narrative would blur and distort the picture. Therefore, after a brief biographical sketch, his work as printer, typefounder, and publisher will be discussed separately.

Samuel Nelson Dickinson, seventh child of Nancy Pullen Dickinson and Cotton Dickinson, was born in Phelps, Ontario County, New York, on 11 December 1801.[4] His grandfather, Colonel Elias Dickinson, had

been one of the original purchasers of Phelps.[5] His father's principal occupation cannot be definitely ascertained although transactions recorded in the County Clerk's office disclose that, from time to time, he sold land. Less than three years after Samuel's birth, his father was killed "while in the act of raising the first Presbyterian Church in Phelps."[6] The father's death left the family poorly off, but the young orphan was able to acquire an elementary education. And when, about the age of twelve, he cut his name on wood and printed it in his spelling book, the family realized that he had found his profession. He was soon apprenticed to Stephen Young, printer of the Geneva Palladium. After Young's death in 1816, young Samuel went to New York City where he worked for a year or two before moving to Boston. There he found a job with the Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry (Coolidge and Wiley, p. 3). Of all possible places for training, Dickinson wittingly or unwittingly chose the best. During those years, the employees of the Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry included James Conner, Edward Pelouze, Michael Dalton, and Edwin Starr, all of whom later became distinguished typefounders.[7] In this stimulating environment the talented young man applied himself single-mindedly. He "was accustomed to transfer the materials of his employment to his lodgings, and while others sought relaxation from labor, would pursue his avocation into the hours of the night." (Coolidge and Wiley, p. 3).

His ambition to own a printing shop was realized in 1829 when he resigned and rented two small rooms at 52 Washington Street, Boston. As business thrived, it expanded into adjoining rooms until the printing shop and typefoundry (added in 1840) comprised twelve large rooms covering more than an acre (Coolidge and Wiley, p. 3).

This was accomplished while Dickinson's personal life was affected by a tragedy and increasingly poor health. His first wife, Sarah Ann Oliver, whom he married in 1830, and their seven-week-old daughter died within a day of each other in 1833 ([Boston] Columbian Centinel, 1 Sept. 1830; 3 Aug. 1833). Three years later, he married Mrs. Mary Parker (Columbian Centinel, 20 July 1836). In January and February, 1847, his health declined so remorselessly that he spent four weeks in New York consulting a "Botanic Physician" for his throat and lungs.[8] He repeated the visit one month later (Dickinson to Geer, 16 March

1847). By September, his illness necessitated the sale of his printing office ([Boston] Daily Evening Transcript, 14 Sept. 1847). A trip to Florida during the winter failed to improve his condition sufficiently to enable him to continue the typefoundry (C. C. P. Moody to Geer, 9 Dec. 1847). It was sold in 1848 ([Boston] Daily Evening Traveller, 12 Aug. 1848). He finished one final task, the preparation of copy for the 1849 Boston Almanac, before he died of "consumption" on 16 December 1848 (Daily Evening Traveller, 18 Dec. 1848).

Printer

By the end of 1829, Dickinson had equipped his shop and was ready to solicit orders for printing. The first announcement succinctly described his objectives and policies:

At least two of his three references had a personal interest in the success of this venture. Henry J. Oliver, Boston merchant, became his father-in-law nine months later and John G. Rogers was the agent of the Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry.[10] The third reference, Reverend Silas Blaisdale, taught at the Salem Street Academy.[11] Obviously Dickinson was starting on his own without much encouragement from the businessmen of Boston.

Throughout his career, he always attempted to obtain the best and latest equipment, announcing these acquisitions proudly in advertisements

and publications which now provide some information about his facilities. Five months after he opened his office, he published an article about one of his presses. In this press, invented by Samuel Couillard, Jr., but manufactured by Phineas Dow, the platen was raised and lowered by "progressive levers" (toggle joints).[12] The article describes the Dow Press and then goes on to compare it with Clymer's Columbian Press. Because such contemporary comparisons are rare, the following excerpts are reprinted:

The earliest items printed by Dickinson were products of a skilled craftsman. He did excellent tabular work, as in the Report of the School Committee, Boston, 1829, and, during the next year, he demonstrated his ability to handle texts and lists in such publications as a report of the Boston Mechanics Institution (1830) and the Act of Incorporation of the Bunker Hill Monument Association. In addition to other works and job printing throughout the 1830's, he began printing books for publishers. Dickinson's production of John Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education in 1830 for Gray & Bowen must have pleased them; two years later, they selected him to print The Token (1833), one of the most distinguished American literary annuals. Another recognition of his craftsmanship is manifest in the choice of Dickinson to print the 1835 specimen book of the Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry. In six years, he had established himself as a highly respected and successful printer, enjoying an increasing amount of business.

The possibility of attaining better presswork led Dickinson to design modifications on the presses he purchased. One of the early alterations appeared so promising that he applied for a patent. This patent, for an improvement in the machinery for printing, was granted on 19 November 1833. Because of the fire in 1836, no copy survives in the Patent Office, but the patent was epitomized soon after it was granted:

It is to be regretted that there is not even a clue to the method of distributing and equalizing the ink. That "it would be difficult to describe without a drawing" prompts one to speculate that Dickinson may have utilized the principle of the revolving disk.

The origin of the press most closely associated with Dickinson has, until now, remained obscure. His 1839 Boston Almanac contained this announcement:

Despite the fact that the Rotary Press bears a striking resemblance to George P. Gordon's Firefly Press, Henry L. Bullen said that Stephen P. Ruggles built the Rotary Press for Dickinson.[16] Two pieces of evidence prove Bullen to be incorrect. The first, Gordon's patent of 1852 for the Firefly Press, acknowledges that it is an adaptation of a press patented by C. F. Voorhies on 8 April 1834 (U.S. Patent No. 9,234). The second is Dickinson's own statement in his Boston Almanac. Under date of 1 August in "Memoranda of Events in Boston, during the year, 1838," he listed: "The Rotary Press, invented by Mr. C. F. Voorhies, of New York, first introduced into Boston, by S. N. Dickinson, with which one person can print at the rate of 2000 cards per hour."[17]

Dickinson found the Rotary Press so promising that although he had originally purchased the right of use for the city of Boston, he decided to promote and sell it in a larger territory. Answering a query about the press from Elihu Geer, Hartford printer, in 1841, Dickinson described his marketing plans:

In response, Geer asked for a trial period of six months before deciding whether to buy. Dickinson replied: Geer agreed to buy the press which was delivered within three months, but even before the press arrived, Dickinson encouraged his customer to dispose of the Yankee Card Press: "to throw a damper on their zeal here, by seeing one of them thrown out of use, and offered for sale. This would have a grand effect for me" (Dickinson to Geer, 15 May 1841). Geer used his Rotary Press for about one month before he notified Dickinson that the Yankee Card Press was for sale. Dickinson then insured a "grand effect" by paying Geer six dollars to advertise its sale in three Boston newspapers.[20]

An aggressive sales campaign for the Rotary Press yielded results. One was probably placed in New York where the "Office of the Rotary

Press" conducted business in 1841.[21] At Philadelphia, A. H. Simmons & Co. advertised that they had purchased "Dickinson's Improved Rotary Card Press" (Dollar Newspaper, 13 Sept. 1843). The campaign also reached westward. When he shipped the press to Geer, Dickinson wrote, "I could have sold it this week, and had it on its way to Columbus Ohio." And then, taking a slap at the sales methods of the inventor of the Yankee Card Press, he added "But the Orcut principle did not seem to suit me" (Dickinson to Geer, 19 May 1841).

Dickinson's 1841 Boston Almanac contained a five-page catalogue of work that could be done and articles that could be found at his printing office. It revealed that, at the end of 1840, he was equipped to print newspapers, books, and pamphlets in English, French, or Spanish. Job work extended from cards to show bills in type from Diamond to 60-line Pica. Printing in color, gold printing, embossing, zylographic printing, and engraving were also available. He used "about a dozen different kinds of Printing Presses" in the approximately hundred-foot-long office on Washington Street.[22]

His passion for self-respect and the respect of his world asserted itself without a lull. In 1841, while he enthusiastically used and sold the Rotary Press, he purchased the Boston right for the Ruggles Engine Press which was patented in 1840 (U.S. Patent No. 1,851). Because this card and job press had the horizontal type form above the horizontal platen, it became known as the Upside Down Press.[23] Soon Ruggles advertised that two of these presses were "constantly running" in Dickinson's office (Boston Morning Post, 15 June 1841). Dickinson, in one of his own advertisements, declared that he "will avail himself of all new facilities for executing work—facilities which the inventive genius of our countrymen is constantly producing and improving—as far as honorably he can, either by fair purchase or free permission from the inventors" (Boston Daily Times, 1 July 1841). Another advertisement specified some of the other new facilities: a steam engine, several new inking apparatuses, a new cylinder engine for job work, a hydrostatic press for giving printed work a "most beautiful gloss and finish," two new power presses, as well as new type, flowers, and cuts being received via steamers from Liverpool (New England Puritan, 11 Nov. 1841).

To be known as the owner of the shop with the best equipment did not suffice; he made the shop itself express his fervor for his craft. He was, he told the public, the first in Boston "to arrange and systematize a Printing Office in such a manner as to leave impressions of respect and

delight upon the minds of those whose business or fancy led them to visit the modern 'Printing House'" (New England Puritan, 5 May 1842). His achievement earned him the admiration of his fellow-craftsmen. In 1841, examples of his job work won a silver medal at the third exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association.[24] When he displayed examples at the next exhibition in 1844, the judges concluded their comment with a note of appreciation: "The Committee consider Mr. Dickinson entitled to much credit for his efforts to advance the Art."[25] On another page of the catalogue, after a description of his display of specimens of plate-printing by direct pressure instead of a roller, the committee gave him "great praise, for his enterprise and skill, in introducing this improvement" (Fourth Exhibition, p. 141). This display also contained a book of his embossed cards, produced on a press made by Ruggles, which the committee also approved. With the press, they said, "and with the aid of Mr. Mitchell, the Seal Cutter and Die Sinker, . . . he has brought the art to a high degree of perfection; in which, he has, as yet, been excelled by none, though many others have since engaged in the business."[26] The combined display was awarded a silver medal. Book and periodical publishers also became aware of his ability; he had already started to print for such firms as Crocker & Brewster and William D. Ticknor and, until 1844, he printed the New England Puritan.[27]

By 1845, Dickinson was printer, publisher, stereotyper, and typefounder. The expanding volume of business was too large to be closely supervised by one person. On 1 April, Dickinson admitted Charles C. P. Moody, one of his chief assistants, as a co-partner under the firm name of S. N. Dickinson & Co.[28] Moody probably managed the printing department

while Dickinson devoted most of his attention to the typefoundry. Dickinson's pride in the book and job printing establishment which he created is apparent in his description of the shop as it turned out work in 1845:

The great variety of typographical activities under one roof provided excellent training for ambitious employees. William Filmer, one

of the first and best-known electrotypers, arrived from England at the age of seventeen and commenced his American career working for Dickinson.[30] Soon after graduation from the University of Vermont, Henry O. Houghton was hired by Dickinson who quickly discerned his capability. After a short time as compositor, Houghton was promoted to proofreader, a position which the delighted young man told his parents was "about the highest notch as to dignity in a Printing office."[31] Men of unquestionable ability like the two successful English printers, John Wilson and his son of the same name, who had immigrated to Boston in 1846, were immediately taken on, the father as proofreader, the son as compositor. Towards the end of a year, they resigned to found one of the best of the nineteenth century American printing firms.[32] A charming tribute to Dickinson as employer appeared in 1842. George Coolidge who began as apprentice and rose to foreman wrote and printed a romantic description in verse of the shop and typefoundry. This small forty-four page pamphlet, signed "A Votary," is dedicated to Dickinson, "as an humble tribute of esteem, and a grateful memento of the invaluable means of mechanical acquisition experienced during a long continuance in his extensive Printing House."[33]

The year 1846 marked the summit of Dickinson's career for, as the year ended, his health began to decline and he could no longer continue his constant, intensive activity. The co-partnership with Charles C. P. Moody expired by limitation on 1 April 1847. Dickinson again assumed complete financial responsibility, but the formal announcement pointed out that Moody would remain, attending chiefly to the printing department while Dickinson devoted his attention principally to the typefounding department (Daily Evening Transcript, 15 May 1847). This stop-gap arrangement ended in September when Dickinson sold his "extensive Printing Office, Book Bindery, and Card Embossing department" to Damrell & Moore.[34] Nevertheless the name of Dickinson did not disappear in the Boston printing industry. When Damrell & Moore moved to Devonshire Street in 1848, they referred to their firm as "The

Dickinson Printing and Binding Establishment."[35] And when Charles C. P. Moody leased the original premises at 52 Washington Street, his shop name was "The Old Dickinson Printing Office."[36]

Typefounder

The years at the Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry nurtured Dickinson's fascination with the design and manufacture of printing type. Undoubtedly he set up his own printing office with the intention of eventually establishing his own typefoundry when sufficient time and money were available. From the moment he began to print on his own, interest in type equalled, if not exceeded, his occupation with new printing machinery.

One can infer that, when he opened his printing office, his former employers were not aware of this intention. Otherwise they would not have encouraged him. According to Dickinson's first announcement, his "choice selection of Type, and other apparatus" were "selected from the Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry" (Boston Daily Advertiser, 9 Dec. 1829). And, it will also be remembered, his references included the Foundry's agent. However, the limited assortment of faces produced by his sponsor frustrated his ambition to own a large stock. Purchases from other foundries gradually mounted to the time when he could advertise that a "selection of the very best has been made from the London and Paris Foundries, so that his Office presents as great a variety of Type as can be found in any other Office in America."[37] In 1841, he catalogued the massive inventory of more than 285 varieties, including wood type, in his Specimen of Printing Type in S. N. Dickinson's Office, Boston.

Meanwhile he had planned to become a typefounder. He may have begun, as David Bruce, Jr., recalled many years later, in 1840 with faces which "were selected from the punches of David Bruce, Jr., Williams-burgh, L. I., and the molds and fitting under the direction of Mr. Michael Dalton, executed by Mr. Edwin Starr and Son, Philadelphia."[38] The fact that the firm of Edwin Starr & Son did not exist at that time discredits the accuracy of Bruce's memory. The other statements in his recollection await verification.

According to De Vinne, Dickinson's dislike of available faces prompted him to send his designs for a new face, modeled in 1837, to Alexander Wilson & Son, Edinburgh, where punches were cut and matrices shipped to him two years later. The face, said De Vinne, is the

face now known as Scotch (De Vinne, p. 104). De Vinne gave no source for this information and, since he was only twenty years old at the time of Dickinson's death, he must have heard it indirectly. That there is some truth in it is apparent in Dickinson's own statements. The first, written in 1842, disclosed that he did pay great attention to design:

The second, one year later, acknowledged that the Wilsons did punch-cutting for him:

By 1844, his successful introduction of this face tempted him to offer to design other faces:

With his well-equipped printing shop conveniently at hand, Dickinson made two grand flourishes in publicizing the typefoundry which he said "commenced in 1840."[42] He used his new type in The Works of

Nathanael Emmons, D. D., six octavo volumes printed for Crocker & Brewster in 1842. Then he proceeded to distribute some of the copies himself. The copy in the Boston Public Library has a printed card which includes the recipient's name in print: "Presented as a token of respect to the Hon. Abbot Lawrence; also as a specimen of printing, From Type Manufactured at the Printing Establishment of his humble serv't, Samuel N. Dickson. Boston, June 1st, 1842." Reviewers also received copies with the result that, in his 1844 Boston Almanac, Dickinson printed excerpts from a dozen journals, all praising the new type (1844 Boston Almanac, pp. 173-75).

The other flourish, Specimen of Type for Book Printing, Manufactured by Samuel N. Dickinson, issued in 1842, is not a mere series of alphabets. Its thirty-five leaves contain an assortment of complete book pages. Thus, for example, Brevier is seen in three 32mo. pages—solid, thin leaded, and leaded, in an 18mo. page, solid, in a 12mo. page, thin leaded, in three 8vo. pages—leaded, solid, and double column solid. There are also displays of Nonpareil, Minion, Bourgeois, Long Primer, Small Pica, and Pica. Dickinson also provided specimen sheets showing complete alphabets in roman and italic as well as numerals. The first paragraph of his introductory statement expressed his feeling for style and elegance:

Dickinson's enjoyment in creating a successful typefoundry was soon disturbed by rumors of a revolutionary development in the industry. Word spread that the new process of electrotyping could be utilized to produce matrices from cast type or punches, thereby permitting any typefounder to reproduce any face at very low cost. Moreover, new designs could be produced without the expense of a punchcutter. A passage in a letter to Elihu Geer implies that Dickinson conducted some experiments toward this end:

If Dickson did electrotype faces, it was a covert operation; he advertised his stereotype foundry, but made no mention of electrotyping.

In addition to intense price competition, typefounders had to contend with pilferage of designs. In the same letter to Geer, Dickinson discussed the unreasonableness of price-cutting as well as his resentment against those who plundered his ideas:

After launching his book type, he sought out and attracted another market: newspaper type. In 1846, the Boston Daily Evening Traveller announced that its "new and elegant typographical dress" was commenced with a complete suit of type from Dickinson (Daily Evening Traveller, 1 April 1846). Only two sizes, Minion and Agate, were used because "the less the number of fonts, . . . used in the printing of a daily paper, the less the liability of getting the type mixed by the compositors, which in the hurry of getting the paper ready for press, is not of unfrequent occurrence" (Daily Evening Traveller, 28 April 1846). Yet, the editors pointed out, because of Dickinson's perseverance and skill and

unsparing expense, "we are enabled to give our news and editorial articles, as much diversity of feature, as though we had three or four kinds of type for the purpose." In a letter printed in the Daily Evening Traveller, Dickinson affirmed to the public that his faces were intended for a particular use: "For Book Printing, we have been as careful to select faces that we consider appropriate, as we have in the selection of appropriate faces for Newspaper Printing" (28 April 1846).

Type for books and newspapers comprised only a part of the typefoundry's output. Leads, brass rules, furniture, ornaments of various styles and sizes, borders, vignettes, Greek type, and phonotype were among the other products. In 1846, Dickinson celebrated his achievement by preparing a Hand-Book Specimen of Printing Type, Cuts, Ornaments, Etc. The contents of this volume of almost 190 leaves must have been a complete display. The preface, dated January, 1847, stated that the Scotch faces (more than a dozen varieties) "were selected from the very extensive Foundry of Alexander Wilson & Sons of Edinburgh, and also from an eminent letter cutter of that city" (Hand-Book, l. 1). It concluded with a regretful sentence: "There are only three kinds of American cutting exhibited among these Book and News founts, viz: English, Pica No. 1, and Small Pica No. 1; but they are considered by many as very handsome." The preface was followed by a "Notice," dated June, 1847, in which he apologized: "We had not the time to put any extra gloss upon the Printing, and contented ourselves with letting it pass as a plain piece of work" (Hand-Book, l. 2). His dignity did not permit him to say that illness had forced him to be in New York in January, February, and March, thereby preventing him from guiding the book through the press. The imposing array of typographical materials in this volume is all the more impressive when one remembers that Dickinson had been a typefounder for only seven years.

The complications of his illness kept him away from his business for such long periods that he could not collect many of his accounts receivable. In March, 1847, the firm had to borrow money to meet the payroll (C. C. P. Moody to Geer, 25 March 1847). He soon sold the printing office, but managed to hold on to the typefoundry for another ten months. Then, as he told Geer, he surrendered to his fate:

The formal announcement gave no hint of the personal tragedy: Dalton and Dickinson had known each other since their youthful days at the Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry.[47] In the year of the sale of the typefoundry, Dickinson's daughter married Dalton's son.[48] Phelps had been a printer in Boston before becoming associated with the Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry.[49] After the purchase, Phelps & Dalton sold the stereotype department and organized a successful business (Daily Evening Traveller, 12 Aug. 1848; Daily Evening Transcript, 9 Oct. 1848). Retaining the name of Dickinson Type Foundry, Phelps & Dalton, later Phelps, Dalton & Co., continued as a firm until it joined its competitors to organize the American Type Founders Company in 1892.[50]

Publisher

Interspersed among the items printed by Dickinson are those which he published as well as printed and those which he compiled, printed, and published. The former group ranges in subject from Rev. Francis Parkman's An Offering of Sympathy (1830) to the first edition of The Pirates Own Book (1837), afterwards frequently republished by others. The latter group includes four projects which deserve greater attention.

Dickinson opened his printing office at a time when Americans increasingly favored the expansion of public improvements. Canals, railroads, and steamboats, all recently developed, promised a radical transformation of the economic order which seemed limitless. Only one successful American channel for communication about this euphoric subject existed. At Philadelphia, the American Mechanics' Magazine, later the Journal of the Franklin Institute, began publication in 1825. Undoubtedly Dickinson realized that if a similar magazine on industrial research and development were established in Boston, it would enhance the reputation of his role as printer-publisher. At first he thought of republishing the London Mechanics' Magazine, but decided against it because of "the amount of matter in that periodical of a purely local character, and the speculations therein contained, which are so constantly anticipated by the ingenuity, talent and enterprize of our own countrymen."[51] Instead, within a few months after opening his printing office, he published the first number of the Mechanicks Magazine, and Journal of Publick Internal Improvement on 1 February 1830.

The Mechanicks Magazine was addressed "to the man of science, to the man of practical knowledge, and to all who are disposed to advance the Useful Arts, and the cause of Publick Internal Improvement" and articles of "a political, religious, or other publick controversy" would be rigorously excluded (Mec. Mag., p. 1). By printing relevant domestic contributions and by reprinting articles from foreign journals, Dickinson hoped to "spread a table upon which genius may lay her crude productions, and where timidity may venture to disclose her worth" (Mec. Mag., p. 1). He hoped, too, that the "pages may one day be used as a book of reference, whereby may be exhibited, on comparison with the then

existing publications, the various advances in the Useful Arts, and the Improvements made in our country" (Mec. Mag., p. 1). Each monthly issue of thirty-two pages, royal octavo, was on paper selected with regard "to the permanency of the work" and "the typographical execution shall be a specimen of the perfection to which the art (in which the Publisher feels it his pride to have been educated) has attained" (Mec. Mag., p. 2).

During the year, this well-produced journal contained more than four hundred and forty articles of various lengths. In addition to the expected articles on railroads, canals, and steamboats, others were concerned with cloth, clocks, chemistry, physics, patents, and anything else that one could expect to find in a scientific journal of the time. At the end of the year, the publisher provided a comprehensive table of contents and a title page on which the title appeared as The Mechanics' Magazine, and Journal of Public Internal Improvement—omitting the k in "Mechanic" and "Public" in respect, no doubt, to the modernization of spelling. When the first volume was completed, Dickinson advertised that publication was suspended until April when it would be resumed if sufficient encouragement was obtained (Daily Advertiser, 25 Feb. 1831). The encouragement must have been inadequate because no succeeding volume has been located. If the climate had been less parochial, the magazine might have found more readers, and would now be the "book of reference" Dickinson anticipated.

Four years later, Dickinson had greater success with a reference book by compiling, printing, and publishing A Help to Printers and Publishers. As previously mentioned, printers for many years found it indispensable. The tables it contained were as useful to printers as interest tables to bankers. To save time in estimating jobs, Dickinson had calculated the quantity of paper required for a given number of signatures and provided the number of tokens in the amount. A printer could refer to the tables and immediately find the amount of paper and tokens required for a given number of copies and a given number of signatures. For instance, 1,000 copies of a book of 35 signatures would require 735 quires which were 70 tokens. Or 100,000 copies of a four-signature almanac would require 8,400 quires which were 800 tokens. For small quantities, the number of quires and sheets were given. All of the calculations were based on half-sheet work, "this being the most common manner of doing press work."[52] For sheet work, the number of signatures would be doubled when using the tables. With this book of more than two hundred tables at hand, printers could rapidly estimate book, newspaper, and job work. Dickinson received much praise and appreciation

for publishing these calculations. At the first exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, he was awarded a diploma for this "original work of immense labor, well executed, and of great convenience and importance to the trade, for which the author is entitled to high commendation."[53]

Dickinson's reservoir of energy was still unexhausted. Within a year after finishing work on A Help to Printers and Publishers, he embarked on a publishing project which continued long beyond his own life. He started modestly by compiling, printing and publishing a Boston almanac for 1836. Its eighty-four pages began with a one-sentence preface: "If it be found that the present number of the Boston Almanac suit the public taste, it will be published yearly, about the 10th of the first month."[54] In the preface to the 1837 edition, he expressed satisfaction with the response and remarked about the principles of inclusion: "The reception of the first number of the Boston Almanac in town and country has encouraged the publisher to persevere. In the present number he has not striven to give a great variety of matter, but rather to present what is of greatest local importance."[55] Directed at a specific readership, Dickinson's almanac, as the years passed, was considered "the favorite year-book of Boston" (Daily Chronotype, 19 Dec. 1848). For improved distribution, the 1837 and succeeding issues were published in December rather than January (1837 Boston Almanac, p. 71). Success soon became burdensome. The work of compilation and printing demanded much of the time of a busy man and problems of distribution were less to his taste. Beginning with the 1839 issue, other firms published it, but Dickinson prepared the text and printed it:

Scattered among the advertising pages of these almanacs was much information about Dickinson's business activities (a picture of his printing office, announcements of new equipment, specimens of type) and, on one occasion, he used text space for a description of his printing office.[57] Examples of his fancy trade cards were pasted on the end-papers.

The printing order for the 1849 Boston Almanac was 40,000 copies.[58] Dickinson's affection for the annual was so intense that he did not cease work while he was dying. He still, as he said in the 1849 preface, tried to improve it:

This was the last almanac he compiled. According to the Daily Chronotype, "He indeed took special pains with the last number, and had just finished it, with all his accustomed accuracy, when he died" (Daily Chronotype, 19 Dec. 1848). His creation survived him; the Boston Almanac was published until 1894 and then continued under other titles until 1926.

Information about one of Dickinson's most interesting publications is only available in contemporary newspaper accounts—a circumstance which is especially regrettable because the Typographic Advertiser was the first typographical periodical in the United States. In the first number, November, 1845, Dickinson stated the objective: "the general diffusion among printers of such specimens of type and material pertaining to the printing business, as we now manufacture and have for sale, and of such as may hereafter be perfected, as we advance in our business of type founding."[60] The periodical was "a beautifully printed sheet," on which "different varieties of type are so displayed . . . as to afford a correct specimen of their style" (Daily Evening Traveller, 18 Nov. 1845). The second number, c. June, 1846, principally devoted to newspaper type,

received similar praise: "the specimens exhibited are beautiful in the extreme" (Boston Daily Atlas, 11 June 1846). The third number, c. August, 1846, showed "what a well directed genius can accomplish" (Boston Recorder, 13 June 1846). Little else is known about the Typographic Advertiser. Perhaps, in some attic or library stack, a file will eventually be found.

* * * * *

Joseph T. Buckingham summed up his wonderment at Dickinson: "Mr. Dickinson acquired an extended reputation by a perseverance and devotion to his calling, almost unparalleled, and which brought on consumption and premature death."[61] The Daily Evening Traveller's obituary praised Dickinson as "one of the most enterprising and efficient conductors and improvers of the art of printing" and referred to his "indomitable energy, industry and perseverance" (18 Dec. 1848). The Daily Chronotype said that he "gave himself no respite, not from a passion for amassing, but from his conscientious impulse to do everything well" (19 Dec. 1848). Constant pursuit of excellence drained him physically and financially. At death, the man who had once employed a hundred hands left an estate of $975.68.[62]

Notes