Happy 243rd to the USA — and Happy 35th to PBBA!

Congratulations to every American since 1776, and to everyone in the printing industry from that time to now and the future. And, lest we forget, printers have been a big part of our history and how we gained independence!

We begin with the pre-Revolutionary pamphlets of John Peter Zenger who printed the New York Weekly Journal and was charged, tried and acquitted of libel (1735) using truth as his defense. The Crown later prohibited the import of printing presses into the American colonies, giving birth to printing brokerage with Zenger's wife the first female in the American craft. Ben Franklin had his printshop on Market Street in Philadelphia. Where he was born, in Boston, there's a Sir Speedy printshop today! David Hall, a Franklin apprentice, created a new company, Hall and Sellers, and printed the pre-Revolutionary and Continental currency for which he was paid until it was worthless!

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In Congress, July 4, 1776, the unanimous declaration of the 13 United States of America was published as a broadside by John Dunlap. Several months later, in 1777, Mary Katherine Goddard of Baltimore printed the first official copy of the Declaration of Independence with the names of the signers attached.

There are many famous printers of the early period and beyond. Click here to read more.

We salute our predecessors who changed the world 243 years ago. Thank you, and God bless America.