American common press, Shield
date: label: Date made
content: circa 1811
label: date made
content: ca 1811
name: label: maker
content: Shield, Francis
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This American common press was made by Francis Shield in about 1811. The press included an American open hose, a platen attached by hose bolts and faced with iron. It includes is original tympan and frisket, but its plank was repaired in the Museum. It is marked on the hose “F SHIELD.” The press has a height of 75 inches, a width, at cheeks, of 29.5 inches, and a length of 70 inches. The platen measures 12.5 inches by 18 inches.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The press was made by Francis Shield, a Londoner, who set
label: Description (Brief)
content: up his press-building factory in New York in 1811 soon after
label: Description (Brief)
content: arriving in the country. In England Shield had built iron Stanhope
label: Description (Brief)
content: presses. Here, he produced a press that is typically American in
label: Description (Brief)
content: style, with open hose and heavy simple timbers instead of the box
label: Description (Brief)
content: hose and lighter timbers of English presses. This may be the press
label: Description (Brief)
content: that he made for the Long Island Star—one of the first two presses
label: Description (Brief)
content: that he built in the United States.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The press arrived at the Museum with an unusual “stone,” or type
label: Description (Brief)
content: bed seated in plaster, which was a cast-iron plate measuring 20 inches by 26.25 inches. The bed was one inch thick and it included a raised iron box in the center. It was evidently a late addition recycled from some other kind of apparatus, that was probably not a printing press. The plate has been removed.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Donated by the Friends of Long Island’s Heritage, 1987
label: Description (Brief)
content: Citations: Philip Gaskell, “A Census of Wooden Presses,” in
label: Description (Brief)
content: Journal of the Printing Historical Society 6, 1970 (census no.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 17, p. 31); Elizabeth Harris, “The American Common Press,” p.
label: Description (Brief)
content: 46, in Journal of the Printing Historical Society no. 8, 1978; Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York
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: 1987.0471.01
label: accession number
content: 1987.0471
label: catalog number
content: 1987.0471.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Press, printing
label: Object Name
content: Shield Press
label: Object Name
content: press stone
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 77 in x 31 in x 57 in; 195.58 cm x 78.74 cm x 144.78 cm