FIRST PRINTING HOUSE in N.H. Funding for this historic marker was provided by the City of Portsmouth, 2011. www.cityofportsmouth.com THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE The New Hampshire Gazette measured 17 x 10 inches and folded to four pages. Fowle had brought with him from Boston a set of woodcuts of Croxall’s Aesop, and he used an image relating to the fable of the fox and the crow to ornament the masthead. When it was later damaged, this woodcut was replaced by Aesop’s “Jupiter and the Peacock,” and later still by the Royal Coat of Arms until the start of the American Revolution. In 1785 Fowle transferred ownership of the newspaper to George Jay Osborn and Fowle’s apprentice John Melcher. As of 2011, The New Hampshire Gazette is still published biweekly by Steve Fowle, a collateral descendant of Daniel. It is the oldest surviving newspaper in the United States. A reprint of the front page of The New Hampshire Gazette, 1856. Courtesy of Portsmouth Athenæum. PRESSMEN at WORK A typical scene (above) of printers using a press similar to that of Daniel Fowle. They are shown inking the type and readying the press for printing. Engraving, from Encyclopaedia, 1st American Edition, Philadelphia, 1790-97. IN THE MID-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, DANIEL FOWLE (1715-1787) established the first printing press in New Hampshire here in Portsmouth. Fowle began his long career in 1740 in Boston, printing The American Magazine and the first New Testament ever printed in America. He was imprisoned in 1754 for printing and selling a pamphlet entitled Monster of Monsters, in which criticized members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He later published A Total Eclipse of Liberty, detailing the injustices he had suffered, and unsuccessfully sued the provincial government for wrongful imprisonment. Years later he was awarded monetary damages for his ordeal. Invited by prominent residents to set up his press in Portsmouth, Fowle published the first issue of The New Hampshire Gazette on October 7, 1756 and continued to do so weekly for thirty years. He printed the first book in New Hampshire entitled Good News from a Far Country, was appointed official printer to the Province of New Hampshire, and produced over 450 titles as a printer, publisher, and editor. He resided in Portsmouth until his death in 1787.