The World Cup of Printing History

Over the past month on Twitter, the Museum of Printing has been running a program called the World Cup of Printing History to coincide with the Women’s World Cup of soccer, which is reaching its conclusion Sunday in Lyon, France when the Americans take on the Dutch in the final. The idea of the World Cup of Printing History is to highlight printing history milestones from the countries participating in the tournament. The Museum did this for the men’s tournament in 2018 and has repeated the program for the women’s tournament this year. (For more on the 2018 program, see https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/world-cup-printing-history-jim-hamilton/.) For the Women’s World Cup we sought out printing history milestones with a female perspective.

For those not on Twitter, here’s a sampling of the people and printing history milestones from the two countries that will face off against each other in the final.

Representing the USA during their first six matches were:

• Mary K. Goddard – Printer and Baltimore postmaster, she was chosen to produce an authentic copy of the Declaration of Independence in 1777 (MKG was highlighted twice during the U.S.’s World Cup run)
• Dinah Nuthead – The first woman to run a printing press outside of Massachusetts and the first woman to be licensed as a printer in the colonies
• Cornelia Smith Bradford – One of only eleven American women who supported themselves as printers before the American Revolution.
• Agnes B. Peterson – Established the Women’s Co-operative Printing Union in San Francisco around 1868
• Edna Beilenson – Along with Bertha Goudy and other women typographers she published a book called “Bookmaking on the Distaff Side,” which highlighted contributions that women have made to the graphic arts

Representing the Netherlands during their first six matches were:

• Judith Rosanes – Great-granddaughter of a well-known Amsterdam printer who established a printing business in Lemberg, Poland in 1782
• Katharina Lescailje –A Dutch playwright who also ran the printing house for the Schouwburg theater
• Dr. Aletta Jacobs – One of the first female physicians in the Netherlands, she published many books on medicine
• Sara Johanna de Beer – Printer, newspaper editor, and newspaper & magazine publisher in the Dutch Colony of Suriname
• Charlotte de Rogissart – An 18th Century Dutch printer and publisher
• “Historia scholastica” – The earliest dated book printed in the Netherlands

For the final, Lydia Bailey (1779-1869), who had a long and distinguished career as a printer in Philadelphia from 1808 to 1861, will represent the United States. Bailey held the contract as Philadelphia's official city printer from 1813 until the mid-1850s.

The Diary of Anne Frank will represent the Netherlands. It was first published in Dutch in 1946 under the title “Het Achterhuis” (The Secret Annex). It has been translated into over 70 languages. It is estimated that over 30 million copies have been printed and sold.

May the best team win!

P.S. To check out the World Cup of Printing History on Twitter, try this link: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23worldcupofprintinghistory&src=tyah

P.P.S. Of course you know by now that the U.S. beat the Netherlands 2-0 in the final, so here's one last World Cup of Printing History graphic that includes Lydia Bailey's portrait: