a.k.a. V.J.

If I ever got transported back in time to the 18th or 19th century, I wouldn’t last long. I just don’t have any of the necessary skills needed to make a living in early America. I know nothing of farming. Jobs like stevedore or lumberjack would be way too strenuous. Despite the nautical pretentions of mt last name, you’d never get me out on the high seas on a whaling ship. Silversmith? Apothecary? Nope and nope.

There is one profession from that era, where I might have been able to make a go of it: printing. It’s probably because I’ve spent a lot of my career in the modern newspaper industry, but I find those old-fashioned printing-press operations fascinating — even a bit romantic.

I had a chance to see a 19th century-style print shop in operation at the Fenimore Farm & County Village in Cooperstown. The Fenimore Farm attraction is essentially a living history museum depicting life in rural upstate New York during the early 1800s. (Kind of an Empire State version of Old Sturbridge Village.) The print shop operates under the name Otsego Herald, which was apparently a Cooperstown newspaper of that era.

The Herald featured two presses – a large one that would have been used for newspapers and a smaller one to produce advertising and handbills. Both were demonstrated to us by a very knowledgeable young man dressed in period garb. It was all very authentic, except for the moment when he sheepishly apologized and pulled out a 21st century glue stick to affix small piece of paper to a larger sheet.

It was fun to see the mechanical and tactile processes involved in spreading the printed word back in those days. Here are some photos from our visit: