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.

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 shop—limited 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