Robert Foulis was born on 20 April 1707. He and his brother Andrew established the Foulis Press, printer to the University of Glasgow, which was known for the high quality of its output .

Tags: Glasgow | on this day | printers

The printing works of Thomas Nelson & Sons at Hope Park Crescent was destroyed by fire on the night of 10 April 1878. The firm were allowed to set up temporary works on the Meadows which their new factory at Parkside was being built. Columns at the east end of Melville Drive were erected by the company to thank the City of Edinburgh for their support.

Tags: Edinburgh | printers

Scotland’s first printers, Walter Chepman and Andro Myllar, completed printing John Lydgate’s poem The Complaint of the Black Knight, at their press in Edinburgh’s Old Town.

Tags: Edinburgh | on this day | printers

The Society of Bookbinders in Edinburgh was formed in 1814, as a relief society for sick and unemployed members. On 5 March 1822 the name changed to the Union Society of Edinburgh Journeyman Bookbinders. The Society continued for 50 years, remaining independent of the Bookbinders’ Consolidated Union until September 1872 when the two organisations amalgamated to form the local branch of the Bookbinders and Machine Rulers’ Consolidated Union.

Tags: bookbinding | on this day | unions

Memorial of the Edinburgh Compositors to the Court of Session. This was a request from the compositors of Edinburgh that they be allowed to convene a meeting: the Combination Acts were in force at the time, preventing workmen from acting together to improve their conditions. Permission was granted and a request for an increase in wages, which had remained static since 1792, was passed to the employers who refused to grant it. A legal case followed, with the decision initially given in favour of the employers, but on appeal to the Court of Session, this was reversed and an Interlocutor was issued which, as well as awarding the case to the compositors, gave the new scale of prices the force of law.

Tags: Edinburgh | on this day | printers

The first ever edition of The Scotsman, or Edinburgh Political and Literary Journal was produced on Saturday, January 25 1817, from premises in Edinburgh’s High Street. It was originally published weekly, and became a daily newspaper in 1850. The proprietors announced that their ‘first desire is to be honest, the second is to be useful’.

Tags: Edinburgh | newspapers | on this day

The Edward Clark Wing of Heriot-Watt College was officially opened by the Secretary of State for Scotland, Sir Godfrey Collins (of the Glasgow printing firm) on 22 January 1935. It had been newly refurbished with up-to-date equipment for training apprentice printers under the terms of Edward Clark’s will.

Tags: Edinburgh | printers | training