The Family Business:
Printing, Publishing, and Journalism in the 18th Century

In the 1700s, women edited approximately 16 of the 78 small, family-owned weekly newspapers circulating throughout the British colonies. Even those who did not run the printing operations likely contributed significantly to most of the other publications. Typically, because of overwhelming domestic responsibilities, women who did assume control of a publication did so in the event of the death of a male relative.

As is the case with many small businesses, the various tasks of operating a newspaper often overlapped. Women worked as publishers, printers, typesetters, journalists, and carved wooden engravings for illustration. Women engravers created letterheads, drew political cartoons, and made fashion plates for many papers.