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From The Archive Of The New York Times

By Adam Dewitz on September 20th, 2007

The decision by the New York Times to discontinue the TimeSelect program has made vast amounts of content available for free. I plunked some interesting articles from the Times public domain archive:

GOVERMENT PRINTING BY CONTRACT. from June 15, 1895

From time to time the Congress is asked by members who are still so inexperienced as to be indifferent to a sort of popularity to pass a law abolishing the office of Public Printer and to provide that all the Government printing shall be done by contract, the work to be thrown open to competition.

PRINTING THIRD IN RANK? on Mar 24, 1918

PRINTING is entitled to rank as the third industry instead of the sixth, is the contention of Charles Francis, who in the National Printer Journalist takes issue with Samuel L. Rogers, Director of the United States Census, for having given the printing industry the lower position.

250 PRINTING FIRMS LOCK OUT 10,000 PRESSROOM MEN from October 1, 1919.

The pressrooms of 250 printing plants, other than newspapers, including those of magazines, trade papers, and periodicals in New York City, will close this morning for an indefinite time, as a result of the failure of the employers and unions to agree on a new contract.

SCHOOL OF PRINTING IS URGED FOR CITY from November 4, 1917

The Industrial Education Survey Committee appointed by Mayor Mitchel gave out yesterday at its headquarters, 49 Lafayette Street, a digest of its preliminary report on the printing trade of New York City. The committee recommends the establishment of a central school of printing under the Board of Education, to be supported by the city.

TO MAKE PRINTING SURVEY.; 800 at Astor Dinner Hear of Industry’s Outlook. from January 27, 1920

More than 800 printers, operating printing establishments in Greater New York, assembled at dinner and held a survey mass meeting in the Hotel Astor last night.

Includes a declaration by Joseph A Borden, General Secretary of the United Typothetae of America that “73% of printers in the US are utterly irresponsible and have no credit.”

Anyone find anything interesting in the archive?

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  1. One Response to “From The Archive Of The New York Times”

  2. By Joe Rickard on Sep 26, 2007 | Reply

    I have enjoyed researching the NYC printing industry in the NY Times archives. Thanks for the tip. Here is one for you.

    SYNDICATE BUYS PRINING BUILDING from December 24, 1920

    A syndicate of printing interests purchased the twenty-two story Printing Crafts Building occupying the block front on the west side of Eighth Avenue between Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Streets. The deal is said to be worth approximately $4,000,000. I estimate this to be about $50M in today’s dollars. Given the value of real estate today, they got a bargain if they held on to the investment. The purchasing members were Charles Francis Press, The Bartlett Orr press, Eugene C Lewis Co, Rogers and Co, Robert L Stillson Co, NY Monotype, Flower Steel Electrotype, Tri-Chromatic Engraving and Moore Press Co.

    The group bought the building which had reinforced floors for printing at auction after the real estate company declared bankruptcy.

    The building is today named 8 Penn Plaza which is next to the old Thomas Farley Post Office (which will be the new Penn Station) The building still has the names of some of the 1920 syndicate printing companies on its facade. This building has a history.

    On a personal note, My father-in-law (President of Charles Francis Press) met my mother-in-law(worked for PINY) in the building.