4. William McCulloch, "Additions to Thomas's History of Printing," Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 31 (April 1921), 203.
5. Pennsylvania Colonial Records (Philadelphia: J. Severns, 1851-1853), XI, 319; Pennsylvania Colonial Records, XII, 404, 440, 448, 456. The mention of monetary units (dollars or pounds) is risky business considering the inflationary nature of currency in revolutionary America. The figures are cited for illustrated purposes - any discussion of the real value of the pending dollar would lengthen this brief essay beyond the percentage scope.
6. U.S. Continental Congress, Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1904-1937), V, 829; VI, 996 ; VII, 325; XIII, 421: XIV, 550, 754: XV, 1241.
7. The information on the office location of Steiner and Cist and for Cist is from the directory of publishers in Charles Evans, American Bibliography: A Chronological Dictionary of all books, Pamphlets, and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America from the Genesis of Printing in 1639 Down to and including the Year 1800 (New York: Peter Smith, 1941-67) for the various years of operation. See also Joseph Sabin, Bibliotheca Americana. A Dictionary of Books Relating to America; From Its Dictionary to the Present Time (New York: Bibliographical Society of America, 1868-1936). Much of this was also published in H. Glenn Brown and Maude O. Brown , A Directory of the Book-arts and Book Trade in Philadelphia in 1820; including Printers and Engravers (New York: New York Public Library, 1950); see also McCulloch , "Additions," AAS Proceedings, pp.95, 202.
8. The descriptive statistics included in this paper are derived from the various volumes of Evans (volumes 5-14) after a careful hand -counting of Cist and Steiner and Cist imprints. This was supplemented with OVLC RLIN by searching for printers to verify any questionable entries or those about which Evans was not sure. Newspaper and almanac entries were also verified in Oswald Seidensticker, The First Century of German Printing in America , 1728-1830 (Philadelphia: Schaefer and Koradi, 1893).
9. See Richard B. Sealock, "Publishing in Pennsylvania, 1785-1790," master's thesis, Columbia University, 1935; the Columbian Magazine was published for several years under various titles.
10. Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America with a Biography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), pp. 404-05; McCulloch, "Additions," AAS Proceedings, p. 204; Douglas C. McMurtrie, A History of Printing in the United States: The Story of the Introduction of the Press and of Its History and influence during the Pioneer Period in Each State of the Union (New York: B. Franklin, 1969), pp. 67, 268-70. Continue with the article...
Also considered were proposals by printers James Adams, John Dunlap, Henry Miller, Robert Aitken Eleazer Oswald, Francis Childs, and Benjamin Wheeler: Dunlap was awarded the lucrative printing job.11 Cist had done some work for Congress , though; he was due $418 in 1778 for making paper and about $150 for printing 22,228 sheets of loan certificates in 1786. In 1778 he was reimbursed for expenses incurred on a trip to Baltimore. He, along with another Philadelphia printer, James Claypoole, apparently did some printing work. In 1785, he printed a four-page outline by William Barton for the establishment of a mint (Evans B6136).12
A letter from Pickering to the President of Congress, Elbridge Gerry, in 1785 is the strongest evidence of Cist's reputation. Supporting his fellow Philadelphian's printing proposal to Congress, Pickering referred to Cist's "ingenuity and worth" and high integrity. Pickering wrote:
Indeed, I know not any one so proper to be the printer to the United States. For he is not a mere printer; but a man of letters. The English and German languages are familiar to him- he understands the French- and he has that acquaintance with the dead languages which is acquired by a liberal education. With these qualifications, he possesses great modesty and obliging manners. Such a character needs only to be known to receive from you all the countenance and encouragement which his own merits and the public good shall require.13
While Pickering's efforts on behalf of Cist did not result in a successful government contract, he did recommend the printer to Webster. In March of 1792, Webster wrote to Pickering , "I highly approve of your employing Mr. Cist to print the Prompter, and cannot say his terms are unreasonable."14 The future Secretary of State had told Webster to consult with printers Bache, Joseph Crukshank, John Fenno, and Bailey for estimates for the job, and Cist was selected. In November, Webster wrote Pickering that Cist had forwarded $50 for sale of the Prompter (Evans 25006).15 Pickering's advocacy of Cist for government printing and Webster's satisfaction help future to establish Cist's status among the printers of early America.
Cist's printing activities for the rest of the eighteenth century included well over 125 separate titles. Although many were pamphlets, broadsides, or booklets, the majority were book-length. A careful analysis, using Evans and Sabin as authorities, reveals interesting results, and although there is little available research with which to compare Cist's printing, the data provide a microcosmic look at one printer's output.16 Statistically (using standard sources), Cist printed an almanac, a Bible, three books, and one short book in 1787. These statistics remained fairly consistent for the next several years- two books in 1782, four in 1783, four in 1784, and two in 1785. Interspersed during the first five years of his business were numerous broadsides and similar publications. In 1786, Cist's printing included six book-length works and five brief jobs, ranging from sixteen to forty pages. This trend continued on an annual basis until 1800, the year Cist opened a printing office in Washington. One steady imprint was the aforementioned German-language almanac. In addition, Cist printed George Frederich Wilhelm (Baron von Steuben's Regulations for the Control of the Troops of the United States (originally printed by Steiner and Cist in 1779 in a press-run of approximately 3,000 copies) seven times between 1782 and 1800 (Figure 1). He printed several agricultural treatises by noted husbandry man John Beale Bordley (Evans 26681, 26682, 30303, 31846, 33435, 35217, B10242), a New England primer (Evans 32529), a University of Pennsylvania Latin grammar (Evans 36309), and Webster's Primer (Evans 25006).
Cist's German-language printing is the most interesting aspect of his career (Figure 2). His imprint on these German titles indicated "Gedrucktbey Carl Cist," or printed by Carl Cist, Carl being the printer's given Russian name. Among his fifty-seven German-language imprints identified by Evans are a Bible (Evans 35201), Paine's Common Sense (Evans 14963) with Steiner, a German grammar (Evans 20938) printed simultaneously in English (Evans 20937), numerous works on religion, and a German edition of Steuben's Regulations (Evans 26361). But this represents only a portion of Cist's German printing. The recent publication of a revised The First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America identifies an other eighty-one Cist imprints which escaped Evans and Sabin. The majority of these (sixty-two) are four-pages broadsides, but eleven of the German-language titles are more significant publications, ranging from thirty-two to 252 pages. From an examination of this German-language bibliography, Cist appears to be as important as any German printer from 1788 to 1795, seventy-nine German titles carried Cist's imprint. With his recognized language skills, Cist also printed a handful of titles in Latin and French.17
After 1800, Cist's printing decreased dramatically-generally he printed only the annual almanac and one other item from 1801 to 1805. These years represent the printer's opening a Washington office and introduce an inaccuracy in Cist's DAB entry.18 His biographer, Reginald C. McGrane, mentions that Cist was appointed public printer during the administration of President John Adams (1787-1801). This fact later emerged in the historical volume of Who Was Who, Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, and several other biographical compilations. This inaccuracy is also cited in H. Benjamin Powell's Philadelphia's First Fuel Crisis, a history of the anthracite market in Pennsylvania. But neither Thomas nor McMurtrie make mention of Cist as a public printer, although both indicate he set up a printing operation in Washington. Leonard White's massive The Federalists: A Study in Administrative History, 1789-1801, makes no mention of Cist. In fact, there was no public printer until 1861. Cist did some government printing work, both in Philadelphia and later in Washington. Cist's imprint appeared on two copies of Post Office regulations, one printed in Philadelphia in 1798 (34904) and one in Washington in 1800 (38801). He undoubtedly contracted for other government printing, a powerful cog in the patronage machinery. For the 223 government imprints listed in Evans for 1799, 173 (77 percent) were unassigned. Only the postal laws (Evans 38801) carried Cist's imprint, and only twenty-five included a Washington imprint; Cist's and two other entries are the only ones assigned to a particular printer. The majority of the 173 unassigned entries were congressional bills or broadsides, and Cist more than likely contracted for some of this government work, but Cist was not the public printer.
I am categorizing information and I shall post it on up coming blogs.
Andrew C. Allen 6/21/13
513.638.7140
pewabic34@gmail.com
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