Note 4 to Chapter 5 of the author's Pegasus in Harness: Victorian Publishing and W. M. Thackeray, which University Press of Virginia published in 1992. It has been included in the Victorian Web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright.
I use the masculine pronoun because little is known about the role of women in the production house. Certainly in country presses in Australia, New Zealand, and America there are plenty of recorded instances of women compositors, often members of the proprietor's family, but to what extent large London firms employed women is not known to me. Plant noted that the jobs of folding and sorting in binderies often went to women, but illustration, of binderies in her book show only men.
Last modified: 4 April 2001