Anthony Newhouse, Papermaker
A signed document of 1747 from the man whose mill supplied Franklin's press.
Paper was the scarcest and dearest input of colonial printing, and Franklin's control of its supply — backing mills, buying rags, selling paper to rival printers up and down the coast — was a larger part of his fortune than any book he set. Anthony Newhouse's mill was in his network; this legal release, signed 'Anthony Newhouse, Papermaker' on November 7, 1747, puts a name and a hand to the trade behind every Franklin imprint in the collection.
The press is well documented. The paper mill almost never is.
Cat.
Anthony Newhouse DS Philadelphia November 7, 1747
Philadelphia, November 7, 1747
A legal release signed by the papermaker whose mill supplied Franklin's press. Paper was the scarcest and dearest input of colonial printing, and Franklin's hold on its supply was a larger part of his fortune than any book he set.