Gordon Franklin jobber

This old-style platen jobber was made by George P. Gordon, of New York, in about 1863. It was painted green. Its chase measures 6 inches by 10 inches.

The Gordon Franklin was the single most famous and influential jobbing press of the nineteenth century.

George Phineas Gordon (1810-1878) was a printer who started building and patenting presses for job printers beginning in 1850. The most celebrated of his many presses was the Franklin, so called because Gordon, a spiritualist, said that Ben Franklin had described it to him in a dream. By 1858 this press was essentially in its final form, but over the next decades Gordon continued to modify and re-patent it. Upon the expiration of his patents, other manufacturers moved in with their own versions of the press.

This early example of a Gordon Franklin has neither impression throw-off mechanism nor a gate to lock the platen into position at the point of impression, two features used in Gordon’s later presses.

The press was lent to the Museum in 1968 under the catalog number 22318.

Donated by Neal Bezoenik, 1994.

Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.

Currently not on view