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for several years by Padre Martínez and his printer Jesús
Maria Baca. The Ramage remained New Mexico's only press for thirteen years.
Washington Hand Press
An elaborately decorated Washington Hand Press in the collection was built
about 1860 by the Cincinnati Type

Foundry & Printer's Warehouse. Found in a barn in Hatch, New Mexico,
the press was brought to the Museum in 1970 where it was restored to working
condition. Used throughout the Black Range, a mining area in the middle
western portion of the state, it was reported to have been used to print
a newspaper called the Hatch Reporter as late as 1927. According
to one colorful story, the Washington was thrown into the Rio Grande to
prevent its use during the American Civil War.

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Walking into the Press of the Palace of the Governors is like
walking into any frontier printing office in the nineteenth century. As well
as being part of the state's rich literary legacy, the presses in the collection
actually function to produce printed material that can be purchased in the
shoplimited edition books and portfolios, broadsides, cards and posters.
Ramage Press
The oldest piece of equipment exhibited here is a Ramage Press. On loan
from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History
in Washington, D.C., it was built about 1820 and is an example of the
type of press first brought to New Mexico in 1834. Josiah Gregg, a trader
on the Santa Fe Trail brought a Ramage from St. Louis, Missouri. It
was used in Santa Fe for a short time to produce a newspaper titled
El Crepusculo de la Libertad (The Dawn of Liberty) as
well as a Spanish grammar book by Padre Antonio José Martínez
called Cuaderno de Ortografia. Later the press went to Taos where
it was used
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