Maggie Erwin, Polly Thayer Starr Fellow in American Art, wrote the following blog post to document the story of Indigenous printer and translator James Printer preserved in the Boston Athenaeum’s 1709 Massachuset Psalter.

The above title pages belong to The Massachuset Psalter, a translated book of Psalms printed in 1709 in Cambridge, at the first printing press in the colonies. The Psalter was intended to advance the missionary work of the Company for the Propagation of the Bible in New England, otherwise known as the New England Company, during the eighteenth century. While preparing for a class visit, I noticed that the Athenaeum’s copy of the Psalter contains the rarely preserved bilingual title pages attributing the production to “B. Green, and J. Printer.” These title pages are important because they contain the only known imprint statement acknowledging the work of Wawaus, or James Printer, an Indigenous printer and translator who worked at the press from about 1659 to 1710. Wawaus likely printed a majority of the Algonquian-language texts produced in Cambridge, making him one of the earliest and most prolific printers in the colonies.

Wawaus (d. 1717) was born in the Nipmuc mission community of Hassanamesit in present day Grafton, Massachusetts. After enrolling at Harvard in 1658, he was apprenticed to English printer Samuel Green, who ran the press housed in Wawaus’s student dormitory. At that time, Green was working with Puritan missionary John Eliot and Massachusett translator Job Nesuton to publish the Algonquian Bible, the first Bible printed in British North America. Wawaus was recruited to work at the press shortly after Eliot expressed concerns over finishing the Bible in his lifetime, requesting that Green hire a journeyman printer to expedite the process. It was there that Wawaus was given the English name James Printer (or James the Printer) by which he is known. After Samuel Green died in 1702, Printer continued to work alongside Green’s son Bartholomew Green, who appears in the imprint above.

Fluent in numerous languages, Printer also collaborated with fellow students Caleb Cheeshateaumuck and Joel Iacoomes to translate texts and prepare them for publication. Once translated, Printer would set the words in moveable metal type and print the text by hand. Type composition was a painstaking craft, requiring hours of delicate handiwork to ensure each letter was aligned correctly. Likewise, operating the two large hand presses necessitated deliberate movements and efficient planning. Often working twelve to thirteen hours a day, Printer was well known among contemporary printers for his impressive output and dexterity.

Like many Indigenous makers who played an active role in the creation of early American books, Printer strategically navigated challenging relationships with missionary organizations through both participation in colonial print culture and resistance to colonial encroachment. In addition to his press work, Printer was a leader in the community at Hassanamesit and negotiated the protection of Nipmuc lands. He also served as a scribe and diplomat for the Wampanoag and Nipmuc resistance during King Phillip’s War (1675–1676), joining forces with King Phillip and his allies in the fight against the colonists. Despite being branded a traitor by the colonial printing establishment, Printer returned to the Cambridge shop after the war to print one of the earliest publications by a woman in the colonies, Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative, in which he was a leading character.

In translating various texts, composing lines of type, and hand printing thousands of pages, Printer ushered in the first run of bilingual literature in the colonies. Printer’s vast linguistic and mechanical skills made him an invaluable contributor to the press; Eliot acknowledged Printer’s singular impact on the Indian Library project in a 1683 letter to Robert Boyle: “We have but one man viz. the Indian printer that is able to compose the sheets, and correct the press, with understanding.” Despite his pivotal role in producing works like the Algonquian Bible, Printer was credited only once, on the title pages of the 1709 Psalter seen above. Unfortunately, these title pages are lacking in many surviving copies. Because the books were designed for widespread use among missionary communities, many surviving examples are worn and have missing leaves. Title pages were especially vulnerable to loss during this time period: books left the print shop in unbound sheets, and title pages were often the first leaves in the stack. Additionally, title pages might be torn out by printers and publishers to use as advertisements, or by later collectors. Only about eight of the surviving twenty copies of the 1709 Massachuset Psalter are known to contain the title pages documenting James Printer’s pivotal contribution. The Boston Athenaeum’s copy, with both title pages extant, is a rare record of James Printer’s extraordinary career and his profound impact on early American book production.

The small letters printed at the bottom of the Psalter’s title pages remind us how looking closely at books can reveal untold stories about their makers. Following discovery of the extant title pages, Boston Athenaeum cataloging staff added a searchable tracing for James Printer to the Psalter’s online catalog record, making this object and evidence of Printer’s work more discoverable and readily available for researchers and community members. In addition to the Psalter, the Athenaeum’s Special Collections is home to several Algonquian-language texts printed in Cambridge at the hands of James Printer. Building on recent work by Sage Innerarity (Boston Athenaeum Indigenous Collections Fellow, 2024–2025), who published a research guide to the Schoolcraft Collection of Books in Indigenous Languages last year, the Athenaeum continues to identify Indigenous creators and collaborators across its collections.

References:

Hubbard, William. A Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians in New-England, from the First Planting thereof in the Year 1607, to this Present Year 1677. Boston: John Foster, 1677. $927 .H86.
Thomas, Isaiah. History of Printing in America. Worcester: Isaiah Thomas, 1810. TBMR :X95 .T36.
Littlefield, George Emery. The Early Massachusetts Press, 1638-1711. Boston: The Club of Odd Volumes, 1907. $X964 .L73.
Rex, Cathy. “Indians and Images: The Massachusetts Bay Colony Seal, James Printer, and the Anxiety of Colonial Identity.” In American Quarterly 63, no. 1 (2011): 61-93. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/aq.2011.0001. Accessed April 3, 2026.
Toney, Kimberly. “From English to Algonquian: Early New England Translations.” American Antiquarian Society, 2016. https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/EnglishtoAlgonquian/home. Accessed March 27, 2026.
Brooks, Lisa. Our Beloved Kin. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018. E83.67 .B795 2018.

‘We have but one man’: A Rare Glimpse into the Life and Work of James (the) Printer

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