Adams Cottage press, No. 4
date: label: date made
content: ca 1861
label: date made
content: ca 1862
name: label: maker
content: Adams, Albert
label: manufacturer
content: Adams Press Company
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This hand cylinder press was made by the Adams Press Company of New York in about 1862. It is marked in its casting “Patented March 19 1861.” Its bed measures 11.5 inches by 13 inches.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The Adams Cottage Press was patented by Albert Adams in 1861, and manufactured by Joseph Watson operating as the Adams Press Company, New York. The press was advertised as a portable do-it-yourself press for amateurs and businessmen, but its portability soon appealed to the armies and navies of the Civil War. This particular press arrived at the Museum with a traveling chest of type with the painted words, “HEAD QUARTERS, ARMY OF POTOMAC, NO. 6, PRINTING DEPARTMENT.”
label: Description (Brief)
content: Purchased in 1982.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
label: Description
content: <I>Every Man His Own Printer!</I> advertised the makers of the Lowe and Adams presses. Easy to use, these presses inspired military and amateur printers during and after the Civil War to make use of the portable presses to print military orders, receipts, billheads, and other documents.
label: Description
content: Albert Adams's New York cylinder press was described as useful for the armed forces and merchants. It was patented on March 19, 1861, and manufactured and distributed by entrepreneur Joseph Watson and the Adams Press Company in New York.
label: Description
content: The Adams Cottage Press was designed without a frisket. The frisket, a separate inner frame hinged to the cloth-covered tympan, served to hold the paper in place and protect the printed sheet. The press included an automatic tympan which closed with the movement of the cylinder. The Adams Cottage Press and other portable presses did not include a self-inking system. The type was inked by hand, a sheet of paper was placed over the inked type, and the bed of the press was cranked below the cylinder to produce an impression and the printed sheet.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: New York, New York City
label: Place Made
content: United States: New York, New York
topic: label: used
content: Civil War
label: used
content: Printing
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Graphic Arts
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content: Military
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content: Cultures & Communities
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content: Communications
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
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content: Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection
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content: Civil War Field Printing
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: "The Morgan Press Type Font Collection" assembled by Willard D. Morgan
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1982.0203.2740
label: accession number
content: 1982.0203
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0203.2740
objectType: label: Object Name
content: press, printing
label: Object Type
content: Letterpress
label: Other Terms
content: press, printing; press, Cottage; printing
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 1/2 in x 19 1/2 in x 28 in; 29.21 cm x 49.53 cm x 71.12 cm