Day, Stephen

Stephen Day, Day also spelled Daye, (born c. 1594, London, Eng.—died Dec. 22, 1668, Cambridge, Mass.), founder of the first printing press in England’s North American colonies.

Day himself does not seem to have been a printer. He was a locksmith in Cambridge, Eng., and, in 1638, contracted with the Reverend Jose Glover, a wealthy dissenting clergyman, to set up the first printing press in the colonies. Although Glover died on the sea voyage, Day and Glover’s widow set up the press in Cambridge, Mass., and by March 1639 it was in full operation. The first printed piece from the press was The Freeman’s Oath (January 1639); the second, an Almanack by William Pierce, a mariner (1639); the third, The Whole Booke of Psalmes, now known as the Bay Psalm Book (1640). Stephen Day’s name does not appear on any of his publications. The name of his son Matthew, who was next in charge and apparently did the typesetting, appears on the title page of a later volume of the Almanack (1647). When Glover’s widow married Henry Dunster, president of Harvard College, Day’s press became the forerunner of Harvard University Press.