The American Printer

1. Introduction

This publication changed its name relatively frequently, which makes finding it more difficult. Often a library will have filed an entire range (with various names) under a single name. The University of Michigan holdings, for example, are filed under American Printer and Lithographer even when the jounal itself is called The American Bookmaker.

Begun in July 1885 as The American Bookmaker, published monthly on a July-December, January-June volume schedule.

Vol. 23, No. 6 (December 1896) is the last issue I have seen (digitally) under this title, although the index for Vol. 23 runs, curiously, though January 1897.

January and February 1897 I have not yet accounted for.

With Vol. 24, No. 1 (March 1897) it changed title (and focus) to The Printer and Bookmaker. I do not believe that any merger was involved; they just changed. The volume schedule changed as well, to March-August, September-February.

With Vol. 29, No. 5 (January 1900) they changed the title to The American Printer and Bookmaker. This lasted only two issues. The volume schedule remained unchanged.

With Vol. 30, No. 1 (March 1900) they changed, without explanation, to The American Printer. The volume schedule remained unchanged.

With Vol. 41, No. 6 (Feb. 1906) The American Printer and The International Printer consolidated. ( The International Printer, in turn, had started out as Paper and Press.) The resulting publication was titled The American Printer and continued with its volume/issue schedule. Its masthead changed to " The American Printer with which is incorporated The International Printer," and verso (left-hand) pages bore the running title " The American Printer" while recto (right-hand) pages bore the running title " The International Printer."

At various points between 1906 (when they consolidated with The International Printer but as yet had made no mention of other consolidations) and 1916, The American Printer also took over and consolidated into itself The Printing Trade News, The Master Printer, The Chicago Printer, and The Western Printer.

At some point after this they changed again to American Printer and Lithographer.

In 1959, they merged with The Inland Printer. I don't yet know the volume/issue number for the last issue of American Printer and Lithographer. In terms of The Inland Printer, this occurred at some point after Inland Printer Vol. 142 No. 1 (October 1958) but before Inland Printer Vol. 142, No. 6 (March 1959) (my collection is incomplete). The combined publication retained the layout of The Inland Printer, but became known as The Inland and American Printer and Lithographer The volume schedule of The Inland Printer prevailed.

For issues after this, see The Inland Printer

The presentation here is divided into human-comprehensible numeric (= starting at 0) decades, but individual volumes are not split when they span a decade end (they're grouped with the decade the volume started in.