Driesbach & Co. Menagerie
Publisher
Thomas W Strong
(American)
Date1851
CultureAmerican
MediumInk on paper
ClassificationPosters
Object numberht2004790
The first steam-run press in America was built by Jonas Booth in 1822 and by the 1830s many of the larger American printers were using the steam powered press to run jobs on a scale never before possible. In that same period, engraver Joseph W. Morse introduced the use of pine blocks rather than the much more expensive mahogany traditionally used by printers. These innovations made large scale, full color letterpress printing an affordable undertaking. This 1851 poster for Driesbach and Co.’s Menagerie is one of the earliest large-scale pictorial posters still in existence. The four-color print depicts Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Paradise and includes the names of the three printing pioneers who created it: printer Jonas Booth, engraver Joseph Morse, and engraver and publisher T.W. Strong.
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