Individual Biography

John Revell

  • Formal Name:
  • First Date: 1814
  • Last Date: 1814
  • Function: Printer, Editor
  • Locales: Winchester
  • Precis: Printer & editor of Winchester's Republican Constellation (1814) for Jonathan Foster (168).
  • Notes: Printer, Editor
    Winchester
    Printer & editor of Winchester's Republican Constellation (1814) for Jonathan Foster (168).
    Revell is a fleeting figure in the American print trade. In a Virginia context, he served as the "principal assistant" to Winchester proprietor Jonathan Foster in publishing his Republican Constellation in 1814; how long that association lasted is unclear but it was from at least February to December that year, so likely for the entire calendar year. That employment also provides the first mention of Revell in the bibliographic record.
    By summer 1815, Revell was laboring as a journeyman in Baltimore where he was a pivotal figure in reviving the local printers' trade alliance, the Baltimore Typographical Association, with the end of the war, being elected the group's president that December. The following spring, Baltimore publisher and bookseller Benjamin Edes (1784-1832) featured Revell as foreman of his press office in newspaper advertising that solicited "orders for printing" both books and pamphlets. Revell was evidently still employed by Edes in 1818, as his death in the early morning of April 21st was first reported that same day in the Federal Republican and Baltimore Telegraph that Edes published. Revell was not quite thirty years of age.


    Personal Data

    Born:
    ca.
    1788
    Unknown

    Died:
    Apr. 21
    1818
    Baltimore, Maryland.


    No data on family or origins yet discovered.

    Sources: Imprints; Brigham; Lause, Some Degree of Power; death notices in Baltimore Federal Republican, Apr. 21, 1818, and Winchester Republican Constellation. May 2, 1818.
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This version of the Index of Virginia Printing was a gift from the estate of the site's creator, David Rawson. The content contained herein will not be updated, as it is part of the Library of Virginia's personal papers collection. For more information, please see David Rawson Index of Virginia Printing website. Accession 53067. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia .