ROYERSFORD PA – The power of the press, and specifically the effect a Germantown-based family of printers had on Colonial American affairs, will be explained during a Wednesday night (Sept. 13, 2023) presentation in Royersford.
A discussion of “The Legacy of the Three Christopher Sauers” will be offered by Dave Willauer, retired Royersford Elementary School principal and a collector of printing from the period. His 7:30 p.m. local history program will be held at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6341, 730 S. Fourth Ave. The event is free to attend and open to the public.
The presentation is sponsored by the Spring-Ford Area Historical Society, of which Willauer also is treasurer.
“From 1738 until 1778, the Germantown printing press of Christopher Sauer produced hundreds of publications that significantly impacted our area as well as the colonies leading up to the Revolutionary War,” according to the society newsletter.
Sauer was self-taught, it added, “and mastered no fewer than 26 trades … His influence through the printed word was held in both high regard and disdain.” That’s only part of “the story of this family of German immigrant printers, whose ingenuity and courageous beliefs left a lasting legacy in our region.”
Willauer will share items printed on the Sauer press, as well as other examples of colonial printing from his personal collection. His discussions also will include numerous connections to Montgomery and Chester counties, as well as some of the familiar personalities with whom the Sauers crossed paths.
Graphic by Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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