John Foster (printer)

Legacy

"America's First Printmaker After a while I came to look on Foster as one of the great men of that great age, — a scholar, a thinker, a printer, engraver, chemist, — a man worthy of the love, friendship, and admiration of the Mathers. Had Foster lived to that age that Franklin reached, Franklin might have been called a 'second Foster.'"

Richard Holman explains that Foster's frustration with the bad quality of Cambridge printer Samuel Green on Foster's almanac during 1675 prompted him to give a try as printer, Holman adds "perhaps Foster looked at the title page and decided that a bright Harvard man could certainly do better."