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A REPUTATION FOR EXCELLENCE
A History of the Glasgow Printing Industry
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Part Four - The Era of
Industrialisation
As the population of Glasgow mushroomed from around 77,000 in 1800
to some 333,000 in 1850, the printing industry also mushroomed in
the last quarter. Particularly, there was a major expansion of lithographic
printers in Glasgow. It is estimated that there were 300 hand presses,
120 worked by steam, and zinc plates were introduced in 1877. It
was said that litho printers were as numerous as tailors and shoemakers
in the city. The firm of I. & J. Murdoch, started by a lithographer
in 1844 with only three or four hand presses, was now a major printing
house, specialising as high class label printers for mineral water
firms throughout Britain. It had its own art department in 1896
and by 1898 at McAlpine Street it had double demy/ double crown/royal
machines; hand power transferring presses; punching machines; guillotine;
ink grinding and bronzing machine; lavigator for polishing stones
and a double cylinder acme gas engine. This was the expansion pattern
going on all around the trade despite a general strike which lasted
several weeks. Some firms at this time, because of recurring difficulties
with the trade unions, tried running their businesses with nonunion
employees. The firm of Collins had a labour force of 1,900 by 1882
and purchased paper mills in New Zealand.
The Education Acts of 1870 (England and Wales) and 1872 (Scotland)
which made elementary education compulsory for all children, created
an unprecedented need for school books. Some of the work introduced
included a children’s fiction list by Collins; Blackies were
pleased in 1878 to have the right to publish Kere Foster Writing
and Drawing Copy Books. These were immensely successful and led
to the opening of a works in Dublin for the sole production of copy
books.
Andrew Bain and James Bell, founders of Bell & Bain, both died
and the firm became a limited company in 1890. On the occasion of
its centenary in April 1931, the employees were guests of the firm
at a motor drive to Lochearnhead. The Andrew Bain Memorial Collection,
housed in the Mitchell Library, includes a selection of the works
printed by the firm. The breadth of the collection shows Andrew
Bain’s wide-ranging interest in literature and history.
It has not been possible to include all the printers that had their
origins in the nineteenth century, but two which started then, and
are still important printers in Glasgow today, at the end of the
twentieth century, are John McGavigan & Co. and John McCormick
& Co. Ltd. John McGavigan started in Glasgow as a general printing
shop in 1860 and later extended to specialist screen printing and
is a successful high-tech company in the 1990s. John McCormick &
Co. Ltd. was established by John McCormick Senior, who had served
his apprenticeship with William Collins & Co. He decided in
1890 to start out on his own as a bookbinder and paper ruler in
the city centre. The firm successfully continues there a century
later.
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Volume 2 published 1994
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