Related Journals

• Compositors’ Chronicle
  • Was the Compositors' Chronicle from 1840-43

Start Date(s)

• 1843 (Score)

End Date(s)

• 1845 (Score)

Editor(s)

• Thompson, Robert

City

• London, England (Harrison, Woolven, and Duncan, Warwick Guide)

Type of Content

• Contains "correspondence on wages, conditions, disputes" (Harrison p. 434)
• Published lists of unfair employers and reprinted articles on trade concerns from other journalistic sources and published political poetry (Score p. 277)
• “[I]f a history of the disputes in the trade be required for the last three years, where will it be found but in the pages of the present volume?” (“Advertisement,” Sept. 1840-Aug. 1843, n.p.)

Notes

• "A trade union organ of London and provincial compositors" (Harrison p. 434)
• "One of the first British printing journals" (Catalogue p. 26)
• Bigmore and Wyman say in the 1880s that “We possess a few numbers . . . of this early typographical serial, which is now very rare” ("The Bibliography" p. 92)
• Shattock says this is a continuation of the Compositor's Chronicle (Shattock p. 51), as does Score (p. 275)
• In the “Advertisement” preface to the bound volume of all 3 years of Compositor’s Chronicle, the editor writes, “We purpose [sic] to suspend our labours for one month. Should the sale of our stock and the payment of our outstanding accounts during that period be equal to our wishes, we shall resume our labours on the 1st of October; and to meet certain objections which have been raised to our title, our Miscellany will in future be entitled, ‘The Printer; or, Compositors’ and Pressmen’s Chronicle.’ Its size will also be enlarged to 16 pages, crown 4to. and in order to render it entertaining as well as useful, it will contain two continuous Tales of Fiction, one of them will be written by the author of the ‘Miser’s Son,’ and the other by the author of the ‘Recollections of an Old Bailey Barrister’” (“Advertisement,” Sept. 1840-Aug. 1843, n.p.)
• “We are well aware that there has occasionally appeared in our columns matter at which grave offence has been taken—but those who find fault can have but little idea of the numerous expressions of discontent and the censorious epistles which we have been compelled to read, and afterwards to consign to the tomb of all the Capulets, lest we should endanger institutions, which however faulty or disgraced by the conduct of their officials, are essential to the welfare of the trade” (“Advertisement,” Sept. 1840-Aug. 1843, n.p.)
• "In November 1844 and January 1845, The Printer criticized Edward Lloyd’s attempts to cut costs by using non-union labour and replacing compositors with composing machines. They also published lists of unfair employers, provided statistical evidence to reinforce claims made in disputes, and warned members about blacklisted firms. To promote their campaigns, they reprinted articles on trade concerns from other journalistic sources and published political poetry submitted by readers" (Score p. 277)
• Edited by R. Thompson, who also edited the Compositors' Chronicle (Bateson p. 88)
• Printer = J. Campbell at Brook's Court, Holborn (journal itself)

Subject Categories

• Printing History
• Printing Trade
• Trade Unions

Sources that Discuss this Journal

• Bateson p. 88
• “The Bibliography” p. 92
• Harrison et al. p. 434
• Score pp. 275-77
• Shattock p. 51
• Stewart vol. 3, p. 604

Works Cited

• Bateson, Frederick Wilse. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Vol. 3: 1800-1900. Series editor George Watson. Cambridge UP, 1969.
• “The Bibliography of Printing.” The Printing Times and Lithographer, vol. 7, nos. 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, Jan.-June 1881. HathiTrust.
• Harrison, Royden, G. B. Woolven, and Robert Duncan. The Warwick Guide to British Labour Periodicals, 1790-1970: A Check-List. Humanities P, 1977.
• Score, Melissa. “Pioneers of Social Progress?: Gender and Technology in British Printing Trade Union Journals, 1840–65.” Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 47 no. 2, 2014, pp. 274-95. Project MUSE.
• Shattock, Joanne. The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Vol. 4: 1800-1900. Edited by Frederick W. Bateson. 3rd ed. Cambridge UP. 1999.
• Stewart, James D., editor. British Union-Catalogue of Periodicals. 4 vols. Butterworths, 1968.