01/17/2024
Happy International Printing Week!
Today is Benjamin Franklin's birthday - the reason Printing Week is held during this week each year! Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, so he would have been 318 years old today.
Born and raised in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Franklin apprenticed as a printer beginning at the age of 12. At age 17, he left for Philadelphia, where he worked in several printing shops. He was then sent to London by the governor of Pennsylvania under false pretenses, but secured work as a typesetter in a London printshop before returning to Philadelphia in 1726. He remained involved and connected with the printing trade and newspapers throughout most of the rest of his life, and used his connection with the press to further the revolutionary cause.
Because of his importance as an early American printer, a sculpture of Franklin was given to the Union Printers Home in 1914 as a gift from the sculptor, Paul W. Bartlett. Bartlett was a famous Washington, D.C., sculptor who did some work on the reliefs in the US Capitol building. The plaster cast given to the Home was then reproduced as a large bronze statue that was placed in a public park in Waterbury, CT.
