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Printing

Making Ink From Oak Galls: Some History & Science

November 13, 2021 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Developing Oak Marble gall caused by the insect Andricus kollari on Quercus robur Chapeltoun, North Ayrshire, Scotland by Wikimedia user Rosser1954What do the following items have in common: the Declaration of Independence, Da Vinci’s notebooks, Bach’s musical scores, Rembrandt’s drawings, Shakespeare’s plays, and the Magna Carta?

Give up?

These examples, along with countless other documents ranging from the historically important to the more mundane, were all recorded using iron gall ink, which is made – in part – from the protrusions created after oak gall wasps lay their eggs within oak trees. [Read more…] about Making Ink From Oak Galls: Some History & Science

Filed Under: Arts, History, Nature Tagged With: bees, insects, Material Culture, oaks, Printing, Science History, trees, wasps

Revolutionary Print Networks: Printing the News, 1763-1789

June 26, 2019 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben_franklins_worldFor the American Revolution to be successful, it needed ideas people could embrace and methods for spreading those ideas. It also needed ways for revolutionaries to coordinate across colonial lines. How did revolutionaries develop and spread their ideas? How did they communicate and coordinate plans of actions?

In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Joseph Adelman, an Assistant Professor of History at Framingham State University and author of Revolutionary Networks: The Business and Politics of Printing the News, 1763-1789 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019), joins us to investigate the roles printers and their networks played in developing and spreading ideas of the American Revolution. [Read more…] about Revolutionary Print Networks: Printing the News, 1763-1789

Filed Under: Books, History Tagged With: American Revolution, AmRev, Benjamin Franklin, Book History, Books, Boston Tea Party, Early America, Early American History, Military History, Networks, Newspapers, Podcasts, Printing

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