Smith
Minnesota Historical Society
From the Minnesota Historical Society:
Goodhue Printing Press
Cast-iron hand press, weighing nearly 1,800 pounds, first used in 1836 in Dubuque, Iowa. It was sold in 1843 and moved to Wisconsin Territory, where it was used to print the Grant County Herald. Lawyer, farmer, and aspiring journalist James Madison Goodhue became the Herald's editor in 1844 and five years later he took the press and headed west to Minnesota Territory. On April 28, 1849 Goodhue printed the Territory's first newspaper, the Minnesota Pioneer, on this press.
Along with the press, Goodhue brought his cases of type, a supply of ink and paper, and two assistants to Minnesota Territory. The only space he could find in St. Paul to use as a print shop was a rickety shack - "a building through which the out-of-doors is visible by more than five hundred apertures," as he later wrote, with hogs rooting around under the floorboards.
Accession Number: 4222.H575.1
Measurements: 68 inches height, 46 inches width, 70 inches depth
Minnesota Historical Society
345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55102