Figure 304
Title-page: Isaiah Thomas’s Specimen, Worcester
From a copy in Harvard College Library (facsimile), Google Books (scan)
1785
The material that a well-known eighteenth century printer possessed is shown in the specimen of Isaiah Thomas (1749–1831) of Worcester, Massachusetts. Franklin called Thomas the “American Baskerville,” but his printing was not remarkable except in view of the period in which he worked, and the difficulties which lack of good paper, good ink, and good workmen placed in this way.