Geographical Context
Rittenhouse and the StartAmidst the frenzy of the Salem Witch Trials and religious fanaticism, colonial America in 1690 was indeed a new frontier where new identities could be embraced, and unfortunately, persecuted. Despite the social qualms of the late 1600s, economic promise came to colonial America by many means, however, one in particular commenced a network of papermaking. In 1690, outside Germantown, Pennsylvania, William Rittenhouse established the first known papermill. Rittenhouse’s mill lasted a brief 20 years, but it aided in the development of a intricate and complex network of paper mills and prints shops throughout colonial America.
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Germantown, PA
This “new communication circuit” merged “political and legal sanctions along with intellectual influences and publicity.” At the center was a new “economic and social conjuncture” (Adams and Parker) upon which colonial America could begin to organize legal affairs with the acquisition of new land, but also begin to develop a social commonality, or American identity. The American communication circuit also had to take into account geographical hardship. William Bradford, William Rittenhouse, William DeWees, and other prominent colonial pressman had to carefully survey land for an ample supply of water. Additionally, because paper at the time was made from rags, paper mills and print shops were located near larger populations.
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Unlike the communication circuits of 1690s Europe, American circuits did not revolve around books. Instead American print networks thrived from newspaper production, religious pamphlets, and legal documents. The Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking documents that “Even before they (paper mills and print shops) had a reliable supply of paper, they begun to publish newspapers.” The first of which was the Boston News Letter in 1705. Soon each new territory had its own new publication, and at that, a way to express the issues within the economic and social conjuncture. Paper become vital to colonial America and its production increased into the mid-1700s.