Course:LIBR548F/2010WT1/Birth of Print and Newspapers in Canada

Introduction

The growth of printing and publishing in British North America was hampered by business failures, government oppression, and partisanship . In spite of the challenges of the period that included colonization, a small rural population dispersed over a wide area, and low literacy levels, the industries' foundations were laid in the Maritimes and moved westward.

The Maritimes

The first edition of the Halifax Gazette. (Public domain. See [1]

The first printing press in what was to be Canada was set up in the new British settlement of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The printer was to have been Bartholomew Green, a Bostonian with a long family history in the printing business. But Green died soon after his arrival in Halifax, and a former business partner, John Bushell, took over the press and the role of the colony’s first King’s Printer. Bushell’s office produced government forms and pronouncements, book work, and broad sheets. He also established a weekly newspaper- and the beginnings of Canadian print culture- with the publication of the first Halifax Gazette in March, 1752 . A journeyman named Anthony Henry entered into partnership with Bushell in 1760, and, upon Bushell’s death a year later, became his successor. Under Henry’s tenure, the Halifax Gazette added its voice to widespread anger over the Stamp Act [2]. In response, the government withdrew its support and the paper went under in 1766. In the decades between the birth of the Halifax Gazette and 1800, the Maritimes, and especially St. John’s, Newfoundland and Halifax, were the centre of the burgeoning print industry in British North America, witnessing the establishment of 14 new newspapers .

Lower Canada (Quebec)

Under French rule, the future province of Quebec never acquired a printing press despite a number of petitions to authorities . The first press was finally established in the settlement of Quebec, followed in 1764 by the publication under government sponsorship of the first edition of the bilingual Quebec Gazette by William Brown and his partner Thomas Gilmore. In spite of interruptions due to the Stamp Act and war, their office was to dominate the print industry in Quebec for the next several decades . In 1778, a provocative French immigrant, Fluery Mesplet, launched Montreal’s first paper, the Gazette du commerce et litteraire. Always suspect by the authorities for his radical views, Mesplet was thrown in prison for three years. The strong demand for a printer in Montreal earned his release, and in 1785 he embarked again on a newspaper venture, The Montreal Gazette / Gazette du Montreal. This time, Mesplet was largely able to avoid controversy, and the paper survives today.

Upper Canada (Ontario)

Louis Roy was an assistant in William Brown’s printing office in Quebec in 1791 when he was engaged to be King’s Printer, the first in Upper Canada . However, there were many delays getting established in the legislative capital in Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake), and the first newspaper the Upper Canada Gazette or American Oracle, did not come out until 1793. Roy left soon after to establish a newspaper in Montreal. More enduring was the legacy of Stephen Miles, an American in Vermont who had apprenticed as a printer in Montreal. In 1810, Miles entered a partnership with a fellow employee at the print shop and moved to Kingston, where they quickly put out the first issue of the Kingston Gazette. This paper was independent and was the only one in publication throughout the War of 1812. Controversy over a political editorial induced Miles to sell the paper in 1819, although it resumed with Miles as its printer under a new name, The Kingston Chronicle. By this time, although the Maritimes was still dominant, both Lower Canada and Upper Canada had seen a significant growth in new newspapers openings, 13 and 19 respectively .

Printing Shop and the Press

The typical printer of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was a craftsman. He might be joined in his work by another craftsman and one or two apprentices . Family members might fill the roles of clerk or assistant. Printing shops could be small with only two or three rooms, as the equipment did not yet take up much space, but they would ideally be well-lit to support the detail-oriented work. Good heating and ventilation were required to prevent damage to leather and paper. In addition to its core operation, printing shops sold newspapers, stationary and books, and were also places for the community’s literate elite to socialize .

The printing press that early printers like Bushell used was known as a “common” wooden press, and it was very similar to the press used by Gutenburg . Its operation was labour intensive, and fifty sheets an hour was considered to be a good production rate. Around 1800, the wooden press began to give way to the wood-and-iron, and later, the iron press. These had the advantages of cheaper maintenance and improved durability and speed . Paper, made from linen or cotton rags, was in short supply throughout this period.

Content

Until the nineteenth century, most newspapers were weeklies that came out as 4-page folios; there was no attempt to highlight certain news items or to divide content into topical sections. In Quebec, many were bilingual, consisting of parallel columns of English and French. To meet the ongoing challenge of filling their newspapers, publishers primarily relied on other newspapers, from which items might be lifted word-for-word or summarized briefly. Content was dominated by much delayed international news. Reader-submitted content, book reviews, and comments from the editor were also represented along with literature in various forms. Advertising typically appeared on the back page where commercial, government, and private messages coexisted.

The early 1800s saw some important changes in newspapers. In Quebec there was an sharp rise in the number of political newspapers that aligned themselves on one or the other side of the linguistic divide. Papers became mono-lingual, the majority being English. The editor-written letter became the newspaper’s centrepiece, where “ideas were turned over and over, principles recalled, abuses denounced, slogans formulated, and watchwords disseminated” . In the Maritimes and Upper Canada, too, the press asserted its independence from government in ways that could attract outrage, as the looting of the offices of William Lyon Mackenzie’s Colonial Advocate in York (Toronto) and the assault on Henry David Winton, publisher of the Public Ledger and Newfoundland Advertiser, illustrate. Other developments included increases in both the physical size of newspaper pages and the frequency of their publication, developments spurred by better technology and the demands of advertisers. The first daily newspaper in British North America, the Daily Advertiser, came out in 1833. Subscription rates increased as well, although the usual number of subscribers for individual newspapers ran in the hundreds.

Role in Canadian Print Culture

Early printers and publishers made two significant contributions to print culture in Canada. First, they provided the physical capacity, the equipment to produce printed materials. Second, by creating items that people wanted and could afford, they helped create a reading public .

Annotated Bibliography

Fleming,P., Y. Lamonde, G. Gallichan (Eds.), History of the Book in Canada Volume I Beginnings to 1840,. Toronto: U of T Press.

Up to date and exhaustively researched, this collection of articles arguably comprises the most useful resource in this field. It takes into account not only printing practices brought over from Europe, but also discusses native culture and its interaction with print culture. For newspaper and print, all facets are expplored including the technical aspects of printing, the business side, the main historircal figures, and the implications of a growing print culture for the emerging nation.

Raible, C. (2007). The power of the press. Toronto: James Lorimer & Co.

Designed more for the the casual reader, this small volume manages to cover key figures and early developments of Canadian print history. The numerous 'action' pictures taken at print museums provide useful illustrations of the painstaking task early printing was.

Gundy, H. P. (1972). The spread of printing: Canada. London: Vangendt.

This book takes a province-by-province approach to the topic. Written with wit, it would make an ideal first stop for those wishing to focus on a particlar area in Canada.