Jane Aitken (1764-1732) was a longtime citizen, bookbinder, and printer of Philadelphia, the eldest daughter of Robert and Janet (Skeoch). She was born on July 11, 1764, in Paisley, Scotland, where her father ran a stationer's store and circulating library until 1771 when he moved his wife Janet, Jane, and second daughter Margaret, to Philadelphia. She is known for her extraordinary skill as a printer and a bookbinder, the only great woman bookbinder of the early American republic. Her greatest printing achievement was the Thomson Bible of 1808.

Her father Robert Aitken was a talented printer and bookbinder. Within one month of his arrival in Philadelphia, he had established a large and successful bookstore. In 1773, he published Aitken's General American Register, and the Gentleman's and Tradesman's Complete Annual Account Book, and Calendar...for the Year of Our Lord, 1773 which proved his proficiency in the book arts. Based on her own proficiency and the similarity and continuity of bookbinding and printing styles sustained long after her father's death, Aitken must have learned the bookbinding and printing trades at an early age.

Despite Robert Aitken's hard work and established reputation he died leaving to his daughter Jane an enormous amount of debt of $3,000. Aitken's debts, as revealed in the Aitken-Vaughan papers, were largely those incurred by Jane's late brother-in-law Charles Campbell, a clock and watchmaker, for whom Robert Aitken had signed a number of notes. The debts did not, as was long believed, result from the printing of the Aitken Bible of 1782—the first English language Bible printed in America.

Aitken was thirty-eight years old, when she inherited the family printing and bookbinding business. Like her father, Jane Aitken was an extremely talented and prolific printer and bookbinder. She was responsible for printing a number of publications after she took over her father's business, including contracts from the American Philosophical Society, the Philadelphia Female Association, and the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, to name just a few. At least sixty of her published works are known from the period 1802 to 1812. Her most important work, according to the contemporary historian of printing Isaiah Thomas, was the four-volume Thomson Bible of 1808, which firmly established Jane's Aitken's reputation. This Bible was a new translation prepared by Charles Thomson, former secretary of the Continental Congress, the first English translation from the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament). It is also likely that it was the only Bible ever printed by a woman in America. The typeface Aitkens used for the Thomson Bible was an attractive and utilitarian type developed in 1796 by two Scotsmen named Binney and Ronaldson at their Philadelphia type foundry. It is a Transitional typeface, between Old Style and Modern.

Jane Aitken never married. Although her youngest sister Mary Ann managed to get married and have children, Jane's single status might have had more to do with her independent and ambitious nature than a lack of opportunity. A lack of marriage prospects also might have resulted from the family’s financial instability. Also, as the oldest and the second most experienced printer in the Aitken family Jane might have decided to remain unmarried in order to better assist her father with the printing business. At any rate, Jane spent the entirety of her adult life struggling to contend with her father's legacy: a solid reputation for printing, enormous debt, and the responsibility of two younger sisters, one recently widowed with three children. It is unknown whether Jane's mother, Janet, was still alive at her father's death in 1802. Jane also had an older brother Robert Aitken Jr., a printer, whom her father had disinherited some time before his death in 1802. Considered only a minor talent, Robert Aitken Jr. was apparently incapable of providing assistance to his overburdened sister.

One person who did provide assistance for many years after her father's death was her friend the American Philosophical Society’s Librarian John Vaughan (1756-1841, APS 1784). Nevertheless, the relationship between him and Aitken is ambiguous. Although he is described as a tireless supporter of Aitken, Vaughan couldn't - or wouldn't -- prevent her printing equipment from being seized and sold at a Sheriff's sale in 1813. Afterward, he bought most of her equipment and leased it back to her, albeit on advantageous terms. In spite of continuous printing work, Jane was sometimes forced to rely on bookbinding for her livelihood. The extant bound editions of her work include some four hundred volumes for the American Philosophical Society, a number of author’s presentation copies of her imprints and the first receipt ledger for the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. The bindings of these volumes reveal extraordinary skill and taste. Also, the similarity of these bindings to those issued from her father’s shop from the 1780’s to 1802 raises the possibility that she was responsible for much of the bindery output, in design, if not production. The quality of the examples of her bindings qualifies Aitken as a distinguished practitioner in the history of American bookbinding; in fact, the only woman bookbinder with such skill known from this period.

Aitken’s great skill, hard work, and even Vaughan's generosity as a benefactor were not enough to overcome the burden of her inherited debts, because in 1814 Jane served time for her debts in a Norristown, Pennsylvania, prison. While it is uncertain exactly how long the prison term lasted, Aitken is recorded as doing binding work in 1815. After 1815 the record of her activities becomes very sparse. The 1819 city directory lists her as "late printer," and she died on September 5, 1832 at the age of sixty-nine. It is difficult to determine exactly when and why Aitken finally retired from printing and bookbinding; but this appears to have been shortly after 1815 for the health-related reasons given in her obituary. It reported that she died after a "long and painful illness."

This collection contains approximately 145 items, primarily correspondence between Jane Aitken and John Vaughan regarding financial matters. Most often these exchanges consisted of a brief note from Aitken to Vaughan explaining her financial needs and requesting a loan or an advance. Unsurprisingly, many of the items relate to the estate of her father Robert Aitken, including several inventories outlining the extent of his debt.

A couple of exceptions to the rather dry nature of this collection: a scathing "anonymous" letter written to John Vaughan and possibly a letter written in response. The dramatic "anonymous" letter accused Vaughan of "cruelty and hypocrisy;" the "response" letter written to a Mr. Fry, possibly Vaughan's attorney, informed him of the last leasing terms to be offered to Jane Aitken. These two letters, written just a few weeks apart, invite speculation into the complicated and inter-reliant relationship between Aitken and Vaughan.

Overall, however, this collection documents the business relationship between Jane Aitken and John Vaughan.

Provenance

Unknown.

Preferred citation

Cite as: Jane Aitken Papers, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information

Recatalogued by Anne Harney, 2001.

Related material

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania and The Rosenbach Museum and Library both have a small number of Aitken materials.

Early American History Note

This collection consists of Aitken family papers and correspondence. The bulk of the collection relates to Jane Aitken's life and dates from 1800 to 1814, the height of Jane Aitken’s business career. Much of the correspondence is between Aitken and John Vaughan, a wealthy Philadelphia merchant who served as Jane’s investor and benefactor when she fell on hard times.

The early portion of the collection deals primarily with Jane’s attempt to settle her father’s estate and her attempts to finance her own business endeavor. The subsequent letters are often about agreements between Aitken and Vaughan over credit and debts. Very few letters contain personal content. The later portion of the collection includes a detailed accounting of Aitken’s business estate and its liquidation.

Jane Aitken was likely Philadelphia’s first female printer. Born the eldest of three children of Robert and Janet Aitken in Scotland, she emigrated with the rest of her family when her father set off to establish a press in Philadelphia. Robert Aitken opened a shop in Philadelphia in 1771 and immediately began producing the staples of American printers: almanacs and other short utilitarian works. In 1782, he branched out and printed, with the approval of the Continental Congress, the first English language version of King James’ Bible ever printed in North America. “Aitken’s Bible” was considered an exemplary piece of printing but proved to be a financially fraught undertaking that left Aitken in arrears.

Jane took over her father’s business sometime around her father’s death in 1802, although she likely played a prominent role in the business prior to his death. She printed a variety of works, including the Transactions for the American Philosophical Society. Like her father, she undertook an ambitious Bible project called the “Thomson Bible.” The four-volume Bible printed in 1808 was, like her father’s before her, well-received for its craftsmanship but a commercial failure. Like her father, Jane fell into debt and eventually spent time in debtor’s prison in 1813. After her release, she did some binding work before her death in 1832.

Genre(s)

• Business Records and Accounts

Personal Name(s)

• Aitken, Jane, 1764-1832
• Aitken, Robert, 1735-1802.
• Vaughan, John, 1756-1841

Subject(s)

• American Philosophical Society
• Bookbinding
• Business and Skilled Trades
• Finance, Personal
• Philadelphia History
• Printers--Pennsylvania--History
• Printing and Publishing
• Printing--Pennsylvania--History
• Women Printers
• Women's History