Sally Bloomfield – ANDREW BENT: Father of the Free Press in Australia

“Michael Howe” turns 200!

15 Mar 201915 Mar 2019

Today - 15 March 2019 - is a special anniversary in the annals of Australian printing and publishing. Two hundred years ago in Hobart Town emancipist printer Andrew Bent published…

Tommy Bent

1 Feb 201930 Jan 2019

Was there a family connection between printer Andrew Bent and Sir Thomas Bent (1838-1909), the colourful, controversial and often corrupt land speculator, politician and premier of Victoria? There are some…

Apprenticeship

17 Dec 201817 Dec 2018

How Andrew Bent became so skilled at the printing craft has long remained a mystery. In a memoir of Bent published in the Mercury in 1881 James Erskine Calder…

Philip Street

26 Oct 201826 Oct 2018

Philip Street was convicted alongside Andrew Bent at the Old Bailey on 1 November 1810. Philip's family background helps to explain why he was granted a full pardon for their…

Stanhope Press

12 Oct 201812 Oct 2018

Collection: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. S1973.104 Photo courtesy of TMAG For over eighty years it was generally believed that the Stanhope press in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery…