Lydia Bailey was a printer in Philadelphia from 1808 to 1861.
Background
Lydia Bailey was born Lydia Steele in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on February 1, 1779 the daughter of Captain William Steele and Elizabeth Bailey. The Steeles were a prosperous Lancaster family; William, his father, and his brothers all served with distinction in the American Revolution. The brothers Steele established a paper mill in Lancaster County after the war and became important players in Philadelphia politics. Lydia Bailey’s mother, Elizabeth Steele, was herself born a Bailey, the sister of the prominent Revolutionary-era printers, Jacob and Francis Bailey. Francis Bailey is now recognized as one of the United States' first type-founders and an official printer for Congress and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Career
Robert Bailey died in March 1808, and left his widow impoverished, in debt, and with four children, the youngest only four months old. But she was a practical printer, and proceeded to carry on such business as she had. Philip Freneau, the poet of the Revolution, some of whose works had been printed by Francis Bailey, learned of the widow's plight, and gave her the publication of a new edition of his Poems, marked "Third Edition" on the title, which was issued in two volumes in 1809. In a few years, through her care as a printer, and the influence of her husband's family, Mrs. Bailey prospered. "During the old Whig Administration she had a rich and valuable patronage from Councils and the departments".
For a long period--from about 1830 to 1850 - she was designated the City Printer for Philadelphia. Her specialty was book work, in which she was assisted by her son, Robert William, when he became old enough to stand at a case. In her later years she depended considerably upon her son, and when he died, in 1861, she realized that she was unequal to the task of continuing the business, and retired. "Steam presses were fatal to her courage and she surrendered to an instrumentality she could neither comprehend nor compete with".
She died in 1869, three weeks after reaching her ninetieth birthday, and was buried in the Bailey vault in the burial ground of the Third Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, to which congregation she made the initial gift for an endowment fund.
Achievements
Mrs. Bailey's printing office had the distinction of having produced a number of men who became leaders in the trade in Philadelphia.
Politics
"During the old Whig Administration she had a rich and valuable patronage from Councils and the departments".
Personality
But she was a practical printer, and proceeded to carry on such business as she had.
Quotes from others about the person
At the time of her death the North American spoke of her as "one who enjoyed woman's rights to the full, though living before a formal exposition of that doctrine, and who as a practical printer had considerable deserved local fame. "
Connections
She was nineteen years of age when she married Robert Bailey, a printer of the Quaker City, in the autumn of the year 1798.
