Elizabeth Glover

Elizabeth Glover was one of the many immigrants who, together with their families, sought their luck in the New World. After her husband, who had planned to establish a printing business in New England, died in an Atlantic crossing, Elizabeth came to be the first person in the US colonies to own a printing press. She established herself as a printer in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1638, and printed several documents, including Oath of a Freeman by John Winthrop and the Bay Psalm Book, of which 1700 copies were printed, but only 11 copies still exist. After her death, the press was eventually donated to Harvard University, and became one of the founding stones for the Harvard University Press, which still operates today as one of the largest academic publishing houses in the world.