Philadelphia press
date: label: Date made
content: after 1850
name: label: maker
content: Ramage, Adam
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This Philadelphia press was made by Frederick Bronstrup of Philadelphia after 1850. The top finial is missing. The press has a height of 72 inches a width, at cheeks, of 33 inches and a length of 74.5 inches; its platen measures 22.5 inches by 19 inches.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The Philadelphia press was designed and originally built by Adam Ramage of Philadelphia and, like Ramage’s better-known wooden presses, it was sternly utilitarian in looks. The A-shaped frame was made of a 1 inch by 3 inch wrought-iron band. The earliest Philadelphia presses had a simple elbow toggle lever, similar to that of the Wells press. After 1842 Ramage changed the toggles to a design closer to those of the Washington press. This was one of a group of presses deriving from Ramage’s patent of 1834, and sharing the A-frame.
label: Description (Brief)
content: After Ramage’s death in 1850, his business was taken over by
label: Description (Brief)
content: Frederick Bronstrup, a German blacksmith, who made this heftier
label: Description (Brief)
content: form of the Philadelphia press. Bronstrup sold the business in
label: Description (Brief)
content: 1875.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Donated by Wallace J. Tomasini for the University of Iowa, 1984.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Graphic Arts
label: See more items in
content: Communications
label: See more items in
content: Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1984.0427.01
label: catalog number
content: 1984.0427.01
label: accession number
content: 1984.0427
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Press, printing
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 72 in x 33 in x 74 1/2 in; 182.88 cm x 83.82 cm x 189.23 cm