This postcard view of the Garden of Mission Santa Barbara was published by the Edward H. Mitchell company of San Francisco about 1908, as a photomechanical lithograph. The Edward H. Mitchell company published postcards between about 1900 and 1928.
Founded in 1786, Mission Santa Barbara was the tenth of twenty-one Spanish Franciscan missions established in California between 1769 and 1823. The mission was built to convert American Indians of the Chumash tribe to Catholicism.
Today the mission serves as a parish church and includes a museum, a Franciscan friary, or monastery, and a retreat site.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for sidesticks with several tapering sections, and grooves or steps to guide the quoins on their path; the invention was granted patent number 145574.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a casting printers’ lead; it was granted patent number 155609. Molten lead was rolled out to thickness between two flexible steel belts, then cut into strips, trimmed, and planed smooth.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for quoins whose two sides were opened or closed by wedges governed by a central double-threaded screw; the invention was granted patent number 139351.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a combination of quoins and sidesticks which was granted patent number 218518. The quoins swiveled on the ends of wide screws that turned into the sides of the metal sidesticks. A guage in the center of each sidestick told the compositor how far the quoin could be extended.
This postcard view of Mission San Francisco Solano de Sonoma was printed by the Curt Teich Company using photomechanical processes. The card was published in about 1914 by the I. L. Eno company in San Diego, Calif.
The Chicago-based Curt Teich Company manufactured postcards between 1898 and 1978 in association with several publishers. It used the term "Photochrom" and later "Colortone" to describe its color printing processes.
Mission San Francisco Solano De Sonoma founded in 1823, was the last of twenty-one missions built by Spanish Franciscans in California between 1769 and 1823. The mission was established to convert American Indians of the region to Catholicism.
Today the mission is a historical site managed by the Sonoma State Historic Parks system.
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.
The press was made by Francis Shield, a Londoner, who set
up his press-building factory in New York in 1811 soon after
arriving in the country. In England Shield had built iron Stanhope
presses. Here, he produced a press that is typically American in
style, with open hose and heavy simple timbers instead of the box
hose and lighter timbers of English presses. This may be the press
that he made for the Long Island Star—one of the first two presses
that he built in the United States.
The press arrived at the Museum with an unusual “stone,” or type
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.
Donated by the Friends of Long Island’s Heritage, 1987
Citations: Philip Gaskell, “A Census of Wooden Presses,” in
Journal of the Printing Historical Society 6, 1970 (census no.
17, p. 31); Elizabeth Harris, “The American Common Press,” p.
46, in Journal of the Printing Historical Society no. 8, 1978; Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a small, self-inking clockwork press that printed from curved stereotype plates; the invention was granted patent number 71103.
William Dougal (1822–1895) of Washington, D.C. engraved this print of “Phrynosoma regale [Girard] and Doliosaurus m’callii [Girard]”—now "Phrynosoma solare" (Regal horned lizard) and "Phrynosoma mcallii" (Flat–tail horned lizard); from one or more original illustrations by John H. Richard (c.1807–1881) of Philadelphia. The illustration was published as Plate 28 in the “Reptiles” section of the second part of volume II of the Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, written by S.F. Baird (1823–1887). The volume was printed in 1859 by Cornelius Wendell of Washington, D.C.
Description
William Dougal (1822–1895) of Washington, D.C. engraved this print of “Phrynosoma regale [Girard] and Doliosaurus m’callii [Girard]”—now "Phrynosoma solare" (Regal horned lizard) and "Phrynosoma mcallii" (Flat–tail horned lizard); from an original sketch by John H. Richard (c.1807–1881) of Philadelphia. The illustration was printed as Plate 28 in the “Reptiles” section of the second part of volume II of the Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, written by S.F. Baird (1823–1887). The volume was printed in 1859 by Cornelius Wendell of Washington, D.C.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a pneumatic sheet-feed apparatus consisting of a suction bar and pins to separate and lift the sheets; the invention was granted patent number 160721.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for printers' furniture which was granted patent number 141450. Furniture of a single length was used, and each piece was slotted horizontally from each end to near the middle, so that the side and end pieces could be fitted through each other.
This American common press dates from about 1815. It was incomplete upon its arrival at the Smithsonian, but was restored in 1972. The press has a height of 75 inches a width, at cheeks, of 32 inches and a length of 67 inches; its platen measures 13.5 inches by 19.5 inches.
The press has its original cheeks, spindle, plank with coffin,
and bar, but is missing all of its other original parts, including the
nut and the hose, which often carried the maker’s name. The
surviving parts are typical of presses made in about 1815 by Adam Ramage of Philadelphia. The press has been restored in that
style. Its previous owner, John Lant, incorrectly believed it to be the
press used by William Bradford in New York in 1690.
Purchased from John A. Lant, 1901.
Citations Philip Gaskell, “A Census of Wooden Presses,” in Journal of the Printing Historical Society 6, 1970 (census no. 6, p.27); Elizabeth Harris, “The American Common Press,” pp. 42-52, in Journal of the Printing Historical Society no. 8, 1978; Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a small self-inking card press which was granted patent number 17405. A traveling frame carried the inking and impression rollers across the fixed type bed and ink plate.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a type-cutting machine which was granted patent number 31333. The patent details a machine for sawing type from a solid block of letters by first cutting a strip of letters from the block, then notching the strip, and finally cutting apart the letters. The block could be cast by Smith's patent of 1859.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for sidesticks composed of two parts that fitted together, tongue in groove, in such a way that the full length of the stick always pressed on the type, no matter how far the two parts were pulled out. The invention was granted patent number 115136.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for an apparatus to receive and stack sheets as they came from a press, or cut and pile printed sheets from a web. The invention was granted patent number 25068.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a sheet delivery apparatus which was granted patent number 227599. The patent describes an improved sheet-collecting cylinder and pasting apparatus.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for a sheet-feed apparatus which was granted patent number 143740. The patent is for a pneumatic feeder adaptable to sheets of different sizes, as well as sheets for printing on both sides.
This patent model demonstrates an invention for adjustable feed gauges for platen presses, to take paper and cards of various sizes. The invention was granted patent number 162207. (James Turner was from Montreal, Canada.)