Gordon Franklin jobber
date: label: Date made
content: circa 1858
label: date made
content: ca 1863
label: date made
content: circa 1863
name: label: maker
content: Gordon, George P.
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This old-style platen jobber was made by George P. Gordon, of New York, in about 1863. It was painted green. Its chase measures 6 inches by 10 inches.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The Gordon Franklin was the single most famous and influential jobbing press of the nineteenth century.
label: Description (Brief)
content: George Phineas Gordon (1810-1878) was a printer who started building and patenting presses for job printers beginning in 1850. The most celebrated of his many presses was the Franklin, so called because Gordon, a spiritualist, said that Ben Franklin had described it to him in a dream. By 1858 this press was essentially in its final form, but over the next decades Gordon continued to modify and re-patent it. Upon the expiration of his patents, other manufacturers moved in with their own versions of the press.
label: Description (Brief)
content: This early example of a Gordon Franklin has neither impression throw-off mechanism nor a gate to lock the platen into position at the point of impression, two features used in Gordon’s later presses.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The press was lent to the Museum in 1968 under the catalog number 22318.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Donated by Neal Bezoenik, 1994.
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: New York, New York
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Graphic Arts
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content: Communications
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content: Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1994.0380.01
label: catalog number
content: 1994.0380.01
label: accession number
content: 1994.0380
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Printing Press, Platen
label: Object Name
content: press, printing
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cast iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 43 in x 34 1/2 in x 36 in; 109.22 cm x 87.63 cm x 91.44 cm