Dundee Directories

The Story of the Dundee Directories

A History of the Dundee and Perth Printing Indus­tries is the third booklet in the series A Reputation for Excellence; others in the series are A History of the Edinburgh Printing Industry (1990) and A His­tory of the Glasgow Printing Industry (1994). The first of these gives a brief account of the advent of print­ing to Scotland: on 15 September 1507 a patent was granted by King James IV to Walter Chepman and Andro Myllar 'burgessis of our town of Edin­burgh'. At His Majesty's request they were authorised 'for our plesour, the honour and profitt of our realme and liegis to furnish the necessary material and capable workmen to print the books of the laws and other books necessary which might be required'. The partnership set up in business in the Southgait (Cowgate) of Edinburgh. From that time until the end of the seventeenth century royal patents were issued to the trade, thus confining printing to a select number. Although there is some uncertainty in establish­ing precisely when printing began in Dundee, there is evidence that the likely date was around 1547. In that year John Scot set up the first press in the town, after which little appears to have been done over the next two centuries to develop and expand the new craft. From the middle of the eighteenth century, however, new businesses were set up and until the second half of the present cen­tury Dundee was one of Scotland's leading printing centres.

Printing in Perth began in 1715, with the arrival there of one Robert Freebairn, referred to in the Edinburgh booklet. He had entered into partner­ship in Edinburgh with James Wilson following the collapse of the Anderson empire, sharing the office of King's Printer. After participating in a failed attempt by the Jacobites to capture Edin­burgh Castle, he had to flee the town, joining the Jacobite army at Perth, where he was almost im­mediately called upon to operate the first printing press installed in the town.
Undoubtedly, the most outstanding contributions to Perth's printing history were made by several generations of the Morison family. Commencing with Robert Morison, the elder, who combined his bookselling business with being Postmaster of Perth in the first half of the eighteenth century, the family connection with printing continued unbroken until at the age of 45 years David Morison retired from business and left Perth in 1855.

It is not possible to pinpoint precisely the date when printing was introduced to Dundee but there is some evidence that it was around 1547. Shortly after the death of Cardinal Beaton of St Andrews in 1546, an Edinburgh printer named John Scot took refuge in Dundee from the perse­cution of the Scottish Privy Council. John Scrymgeour, Constable and Provost of Dundee, was commanded to apprehend him and take him prisoner to the Council. The Provost refused to undertake this task and as a result it is thought that Scot set up his printing press within the burgh and continued there until he found means to es­tablish himself in St Andrews. No examples of his work have been found either in Dundee or St Andrews but there is a strong probability that Wedderburn's Gude and Godlie Ballates was printed by Scot in 1567 after his return to Edinburgh. The next reference to printing in the town is to be found in Lament's Diary in the year 1661 when a number of theses written by St Andrews profes­sors were 'printed in Dundee'. In 1678 another work, a map of the County of Forfar bearing a Latin description, was printed in Dundee. The publisher was the Rev. Robert Edwards, minister of Murroes, but the identity of the printer is not known.

From that time little is known of the progress of the press until the beginning of the next century when an attempt was made by a number of the clergy to establish printing in the district. It ap­pears from the parochial records of Foulis Easter that on the 18th April 1703 the Presbytery of Dundee directed a special collection be made in the Churches. As a result Foulis gave the modest sum of one pound four shillings to Daniel Gaines to help him in setting up the art of Printing in Dundee. Whether Gaines pocketed the proceeds of this pious contribution and made off is not known, but there is no evidence that he succeeded in reviving the art as no printed matter bearing his name seems to exist.

It was not until 1755 that Henry Galbraith & Co. established a printing business in Dundee, but no records have been found to show in which part of the burgh their  office was situated. Although cred­ited with the production of two major works, viz:
the whole of the theological works of Isaac Ambrose in one large folio volume and Qsteruidd's Bible, there is evidence that the two texts were printed in Holland. The title-pages and lists of sub­ scribers were printed by Galbraith, hence the
confusion over who was responsible for the production of both titles. Printed in 1763, the Bible was dedicated to 'Patrick Maxwell Esq., Lord Provost of Dundee'. 

Thomas Yule Miller has written about this period, when the population of the town was around 14,000. Trade, chiefly linen manufacturing, was in a flourishing state and about one hundred small wooden vessels belonged to the port which had a single landing quay but no harbour. Land travel was by means of the stagecoach. News of what was going on in the kingdom and in other parts of the world was extremely limited. There were no newspapers, and letters were regarded as expensive: the postage costing sixpence. It was in this environment that Henry Galbraith & Co. sought to contribute to the enlightenment of the people by launching a newspaper. The year 1755 saw the birth of Dundee's first newspaper entitled the Dundee Weekly Intelligencer. Unfortu­nately this first enterprise did not receive the support it deserved and the newspaper quickly succumbed.

It is known that from c. 1770 to c. 1775 a printing business was run in the Kirk Wynd by Laurence Chalmers and David Ogilvie, but no examples of their work have been traced. Around 1775 Thomas Colville took over Galbraith's business and until his death in 1819 printed a number of books and a range of peri­odicals and newspapers. It is claimed with some justification that he did more than anyone to introduce the printed word to the populace of Dundee

Thomas Miller wrote 'Colville was gifted with great inception, energy and industry, and left be­hind him a name on the page of local history'. One could add 'perseverance' to those qualities as he experienced many fluctuations of fortune. One example of this occurred in 1776. Early in the year he started a weekly publication called the Dundee Weekly Magazine or a History of the Present Times which resembled its Edinburgh contemporary the Edinburgh Weekly Amusement, Unfortunately the magazine was suppressed in the summer of the same year by a decision of the Court of Exchequer.
Also in 1775 Colville printed a work by Charles Thornton entitled A Table Calculated for the use of Weavers, shewing the length the pirns will run accord­ing to the size of the web. About the same time he produced a weekly newspaper which again was short lived. Colville must be given full credit for publishing the first Dundee Directory in 1782. It was entitled the Dundee Register of Merchants and Trades and consisted of 72 pages. This publication was intended to be the first of a regular series but unfortunately, because of lack of support, it also became the last of its kind when Colville printed a second Directory in 1809. It was published in January of that year, priced 2s 6d. Although the population of the town had risen by then to about 30,000 only 700 copies were sold and Colville abandoned his plans for an 1810 edition. Another of Colville's works was the Dundee Magazine and journal of the Times which he first printed and published in January 1799. Four or five volumes of this work were issued, each volume containing about 700 pages.

Colville was invited to print the recently founded Dundee Weekly  Advertiser  and  Angusshire Intelligencer in 1801 and continued in charge of the production until 1805 when a change of owner­ship resulted in the paper being printed and published by the new proprietors in Peter's Build­ings, St Andrew's Place, Cowgate.
Not to be outdone, Colville started a rival paper to the Ad­vertiser which he entitled the Dundee Mercury. This consisted of four pages and was published weekly on Wednesdays, price sixpence. Colville's office at this time was situated in Bisset's Close on the north side of the Overgate near the 'Cross' and was distinguished from the adjacent buildings by a figure of Mercury above the entrance. After seven years of striving to compete, the Mercury closed down, leaving the field to the Advertiser.

Undaunted, Colville and his son, Alexander, again ventured into publishing in 1815 with the Dundee Magazine but this too met an early fate. One more attempt was made to provide a weekly newspaper when, on 20 September 1816, Colville and his son produced the first number of the Dun­dee Courier, Its page size was 14 ins by 10.5 ins and the price 7d. On his death in August 1819, Colville's business passed to his son Alexander. Soon afterwards the business became bankrupt and the newspaper and plant were offered for sale. A number of influential citizens met and proposed that David Hill, who printed a struggling news­paper in Montrose, be approached and asked to take over the Courier. This he did in November 1823 and continued to edit and publish the news­paper for the next ten years. When his health was failing, Hill assumed Charles Alexander as a part­ner and the company, Hill & Alexander, continued to publish the Courier for many years. For a fur­ther period the proprietors of the newspaper were Charles Alexander & Co. until it was taken over by W. & D. C. Thomson.

Shortly before 1800, Francis Ray came to Dundee and for a brief period before Colville took it over in 1801, he was the printer of the Dundee Adver­tiser. It is claimed that he issued the first Gazetteer of Scotland as well as an edition of Rollin's Ancient History containing engravings by Thomas Ivory of Dundee.

In 1808 the Advertiser appears to have been pur­chased by Mr R. S. Rintoul who for the next seventeen years was editor, printer and proprie­tor. During the following twenty-five years the paper was printed by Alexander Macdonald, the printing office being then in Argyle Close, Overgate. In July 1851 John Leng moved north from Hull to become the new editor, printer and polisher and soon afterwards part proprietor of the newspaper. Probably his most successful new launching was the People's Journal, which quickly built up a wide circulation throughout the coun­try. His long and distinguished service to the community was recognised when he was awarded a.knighthood.

Contemporaries of Thomas Colville were William and James Chalmers. The former opened a book­seller's shop at 10/12 Castle Street in 1788, and in 1805 his brother James took over and expanded the business by adding a printing office at 7 New Inn Entry and an ink manufactory at No 4. In 1829 the company issued their first Directory and in the same year their Mercantile Tables was published. By 1851 all printing was carried out at Thorn's Close in the High Street. James Chalmers intro­duced the first lithographic works to Dundee in 1829 and is renowned as the designer of the first adhesive stamp in 1834.

When the poor people of the town suffered great hardship during a severe depression, James Chalmers cleaned out his ink boilers and made soup in them for the distressed. The soup was la­dled out at the workshop door by his pressman. James Chalmers died in 1853 and his son took over the business, running it under the name of C. D. Chalmers until 1870 when it was changed to Chalmers & Winter. On the death of C. D. Chalmers in 1877, David Winter succeeded to the business. He subsequently formed a partnership with James Duncan (foreman printer) and John Duncan (bookbinder) under the designation Win­ter, Duncan & Co. In 1907 the company changed its name to D. Winter & Son. Remarkably, David Winter continued in business until 1932 when, at the age of 96, he died suddenly of a heart attack. He was succeeded by his son, Frederick, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. In that year Ann Winter was appointed chairman and was still in that office in 1995 at the age of 92. The company was sold in 1987 but the name David Winter & Son has been retained.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Valentines were an important Dundee family mainly connected with the weaving industry. When his own textile company failed, John Val­entine set up cutting wood blocks for another local textile firm. In 1822 the firm became known as John Valentine & Son when his son James be­came a partner.

The partnership ended in 1840 with John continu­ing in woodstamp cutting whilst his son ventured into printing, engraving and photography. James became interested in daguerreotype during the 1840s, and his photo survey of the Highlands won him the Royal Warrant Order in 1868. Two of James' sons, George and William, entered
the business; the latter succeeding to the firm and raising it to international status. When William died in 1906 in St Andrews the company's labour force in Dundee had risen from 30 in 1886 to 600. William's son H. J. Valentine mastered the collotype and photochromic processes; the latter had been developed in Switzerland. The picture postcard as we know it was invented in the 1890s and Valentines used both processes in its produc­tion. In 1903 the postcard craze was at its height and Valentines claimed around 25 per cent of the entire market. Valentine's Kingsway factory, oc­cupied in 1937, was built on the second postcard boom of the 1930s, but after the Second World War the business became less profitable. As business declined, control of the company weakened and the firm merged with Waddington in the 1960s. The postcard line ended in 1970 and for a period firm concentrated on greeting cards. Sadly, after further management changes the firm closed down finally in October 1994.

In 1829 John Pellow, the son of a dock gateman, was born in Dundee and served his apprentice­ship at the Courier. Shortly after completing his apprenticeship he moved to Glasgow, but in 1851 he returned to Dundee and founded the business of which he was the sole proprietor until his death. His first business premises were in the New Inn Entry, but as trade developed he moved to larger premises in Murraygate and then later to the High Street. When his business expanded further he returned to a larger building in Murraygate. Fellow published annually an almanac widely known as Fellow's Dundee Almanac. He was also e publisher of the Dundee Register and the His-lory of the UP Church in Dundee.

Although deeply involved in public affairs, un­doubtedly Pellow's chief interest was in the work of the Good Templars. For many years he was on the General Committee of office-bearers of the Dundee Gospel Temperance Union. This active interest in temperance work may well have sprung from the tragic life of his brother, Peter, who had served his apprenticeship with him at the Courier. By all accounts Peter was a colourful character who, among other activities, was to be seen fre­quently playing his fiddle at local dances. Peter died of apoplexy, his failing health not helped by heavy drinking.
John Fellow had four sons, three of whom were printers. One of these, James, on leaving his fa­ther's company, moved to Edinburgh where he set up business with a friend called Harvey, nam­ing the firm Harvey Ltd. When Harvey died James Fellow carried on the business himself at 13 Forth Street in the city. After his death in 1935, the busi­ness was taken over by the Dickson family and is now located at Loanhead in Midlothian. John Durham, a native of Portobello, near Edinburgh, came to Dundee in 1835 and set up his printing business at 49 High Street, later moving to Argyll's Close, off the Overgate. After a suc-^essful career, John Durham died in 1877 and left -«.ne business to his son James who was already a partner. James is perhaps best known for his work as a geologist. He wrote many papers on geology and this work was recognised when he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. On John Durham's death, John Kinnoch, who had been with the company for several years, became a partner. He had served his apprenticeship in the office of Perthshire Constitutional and moved to Dundee in 1858 when he was twenty years old. For the next fifty years he was the active manager and did much to develop the business. When John Kinnoch died in August 1911 the business passed to his son George and his partner William Lamb in premises at 11-19 Overgate. James P. Matthew & Co., printers, publishers, bookbinders, and stationers, was founded in 1854. It appears the company was first situated at 32 Meadow Entry, Meadowside, and later at 11-15 Cowgate. Perhaps the firm was best known as printers and publishers of the Dundee Directory which they produced from 1864 until 1927. William Kidd who had worked for Frederick Shaw, bookseller, set up his own business at 3 Union Street in 1871. On Shaw's retiral, Kidd pur­chased the firm and moved to 112 Nethergate. As a consequence of the rapid development of the business and thus the need for increased accom­modation, Kidd built the handsome block in Whitehall Street known as the'Palace Buildings' and moved there in 1885. The machine-room was located in the basement where a number of new presses were powered by an 'Otto' gas engine of six horse-power. The litho department was situ­ated on the first floor above the shops while the bookbinding and composing departments occu­pied the third and fourth floors respectively. Among the books published by Kidd were Maxwell's History of Old Dundee, Allen's Guide to Navigation, and numerous guide books to Dun­dee, Arbroath, etc.

In the year 1886 William Burns, a practising sta­tioner in business in Dundee, was joined by his friend William Harris to form a joint venture as stationers, booksellers and printers at 112 Nethergate, a location already familiar to that trade. William Burns had served his time and gained experience with several firms in the city while William Harris had learned his trade in Cupar. From the start the new firm engaged in both letterpress and lithographic processes. The staff during the early years of the company con­sisted of eight adults and thirteen juniors in addition to the two partners. Behind the retail shop was a small one-storey building with ari entrance from Yeaman Shore and Sea Close, and within this a beginning was made to the printing side of the business. For a time bookbinding was 'sent out', but in 1890 Strathmore Hall, a dance hall in the Sea Wynd, was offered to rent and the company took this opportunity to establish its bookbinding department there. It became increasingly inconvenient to have de­partments housed separately so in 1892 a tenement building in Sea Close was demolished and a four-storey building erected as the workshop. Burns and Harris continued to expand into the general trade of the city and one of their most suc­cessful developments was the printing of coloured labels for distillers and also the preserves and con­fectionery trades. The orders for those labels ran into millions and given that all the double crown sheets had to be bronzed by hand, this will give an indication of the scale of the operation. Milk was not supplied at that time to protect workers from the effects of bronze dust entering the nos­trils. Instead, a ration of snuff was issued. There were three disastrous fires during the life of the company after its move to Long Wynd. The first was in 1900 when the factory of James Keiller & Son of marmalade fame was burned to the ground. Another was the great fire in Watson's Bond in 1906, On the third occasion Bums & Harris were the victims. Paper hung in the printing-room roof became ignited and the pressmen were literally left 'without a roof over their heads'.

Fortunately, business was not interrupted even during the reconstruction period. Around 1927 another printing company in Dun­dee, Paul and   Matthew   situated in the Murraygate, ceased trading and Burns & Harris purchased the publishing rights to the Dundee Directory. The Directory was published annually over the next half century but in the early 1970s production costs started to outstrip the market value and in 1974 the last edition went to press. From the late 1920s the business continued to ex­pand until disaster struck again with a devastating 3 at the factory premises on 11 January 1957, gutting the machine-room and severely crippling the office premises. What might have been a le­thal blow to the company was mitigated by the fact that a year earlier the young third generation of the Burns family had purchased a small print­ing concern in Arbroath, Central Printers (Arbroath) Ltd, which had significant space avail­able. This was acquired temporarily and, together with the goodwill and help received from com­petitors, the company retained their staff on full time until they could be relocated in the new ex­panded factory on the original site. In 1967, the death of William Harris, son of the co-founder, left the company in the hands of the Burns family and the great-grandchildren of William Burns, one of the founders, continued to manage the business. In April 1995 Burns & Harris (Print) Ltd and George E, Findlay & Co. Ltd merged forming the new company name Burns Harris & Findlay Ltd.

George Langlands Harley was born at Colesberg Kopye near Kimberley, South Africa, on 27 Janu­ary 1867. He moved to Lochee with his widowed mother after his father died from sunstroke, and at the age of eleven he applied for a job with William Kidd and was indented on a five years' apprenticeship to the stationery trade. Among his recollections was his opening of the soaked let­ters washed ashore at the 'Ferry' in the mailbags from the wrecked train after the Tay Bridge disas­ter in 1879.

When the founders of Burns & Harris left William Kidd's employment to set up their own business, Harley joined them and served that company for 21 years. In 1904 he was able to raise £1000 to start business on his own account. He opened a small shop at 102 Nethergate and at the same time he acquired a double flat at Gowan's Court, 21 North Tay Street, where he installed his initial printing plant: an Arab platen, a double crown flat bed cylinder press, several type cases, a proofing press and a guillotine. Downstairs from this letterpress jobbing office was the works of Robert Black wood, himself a lithographer recently in btisiness. The close proximity of the two young firms led to many years of co-operative neighbourliness. The strain of setting up and running his own busi­ness began to affect Harley's health and this led to his decision to offer a partnership to William Cox. In 1907 the business became known as Harley & Cox. As it prospered it was necessary to move to new premises at East Henderson's Wynd. At the same time, the opportunity was taken to set up a litho department. The company remained there until 1921 when the owners of the property put it up for sale. It was decided that rather than purchase the building the company should seek a new and larger location and this took them back to Gowan's Court, opposite their original build­ing. Soon afterwards they installed their second Intertype machine costing £1300. In 1924 William Cox died but the senior partner, George Harley, served the company until 1944 when he died in a tragic drowning accident.

In 1908 the Cresswell Printing Press was founded by T. M. Sparks in premises at 2 and 4 Peter Street. He had been trained as a bookbinder but decided to add printing to his business and in 1911 moved to larger accommodation at 12 and 14 Peter Street. The press continued to do business there for the remaining years of its seventeen years of existence. The choice of the company title is interesting. The press was established in the heart of old Dundee, in a very old thoroughfare running between Murraygate and Seagate, and close to the site of the old Town House and Market Cross. Nearby there was formerly another landmark of bygone Dundee, the Dog Well. The Cross and the Well were combined to obtain the Cresswell Press. The growth of the printing industry in the city during the second half of the last century can best be measured by consulting the Dundee Directory. 'n the 1856-57 edition 11 printers are listed and this number had risen to 13 in 1874. However, by the end of the century the number of printers had risen to 25. Of these perhaps the greatest success story is that of D. C. Thomson. When William Thomson, a Dundee shipowner in the 1870s, took over shares in a local firm which published the Dundee Courier and Argus and the Weekly News, he could not have foreseen the suc­cess which was to follow from that modest beginning. In 1886 he took complete control of the company and made his son D. C. Thomson a part­ner with full authority over the firm, then named W. & D. C. Thomson. Some time later another son, Frederick, joined the firm.
In the years that followed, several nephews of D. C. Thomson entered the firm, including another notable figure in the company's history, W. Harold Thomson, whose sons are chairman and vice-chairman today (1995).
From the time W. & D. C. Thomson was estab­lished until the turn of the century, there was fierce competition in Dundee with the larger and longer established firm of John Leng & Co. That com­pany published the Dundee Advertiser and the Dundee Evening Telegraph as well as the People's Journal and People's Friend, During the latter part of the nineteenth century the Thomson business became the more success­ful of the two. In 1905 the name of the company was changed to the present D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. A year later an arrangement was made with the Lengs to pool the two businesses with Thomsons as the majority partner. For a period the Lengs continued to manage their side of the business, but eventually both came under the full management of the Thomson family. On the newspaper side, the Evening Post launched by the Thomsons in 1900 joined up with the Evening Telegraph in 1905 and continues today under that title. The Sunday Post was launched in Glasgow in 1914. It was first known as the Post Sunday Special until it took its present title in 1919. It has been one of the success stories of the indus­try. In 1926, following the General Strike, the Dundee Advertiser merged with the Dundee Cou­rier, which today has one of the largest circulations among provincial newspapers in the UK. Soon after the First World War, the firm decided to expand its magazine business to take up print-ing time on presses not fully occupied by newspapers. This was made possible by the de­velopment of an additional fold to a tabloid newspaper by what is known as a pony folder. The company first entered the children's market with the Adventure, a text story for boys, which was launched in 1921. This was followed rapidly by the Rover, Wizard, Vanguard, Skipper, and Hotspur. In 1937 came the first of the comics, Dandy, and soon afterwards the Beano which still has the largest sale of children's comics in the UK. The period following the Second World War saw a great expansion in Thomson's business, not only in the launching of many new magazines and chil­dren's papers but also Christmas annuals. The company is rightly proud of the fact it con­tinues as an independent family firm. In fact, the group is the only truly Scottish controlled com­pany among the principal newspaper publishers in Scotland - all their publications are owned and based in Scotland.

It has never been their policy to acquire outside publications. The purchase of the Scots Magazine in 1927 was an exception. It was first published on 9 February 1739 as a 48-page booklet, price six­pence monthly, edited and printed in Edinburgh. A favourite with Scots both at home and abroad, it celebrated its 250th anniversary in 1989 as the world's oldest popular periodical. The printing scene in Dundee today is in contrast with the picture at the end of the last century when some twenty-five firms were trading. There is lit­tle doubt this is due to the spread of new technology and, perhaps equally important, the ability of business in general to install their own office printing equipment.

This short history of printing in Dundee cannot end without recognising the important contribu­tion to the industry made by the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art. Initially printing classes were established in Bell Street but in 1959 a Department of Printing was set up in the Col-'s new building in Perth Road with completely new equipment. In its early years the department was responsible for the day release training of printing apprentices in the city and also from Perth. In later years apprentices from Aberdeen were accommodated for block release training and courses were further developed by the introduc­tion of the Printing and Publishing Industrial Training Board Pilot Scheme. The Scheme made history as for the first time it enabled students from the highlands and islands to attend further edu­cation in print.
Credit must be given to Dundee for setting up the first Distance Learning Course in print in the UK. This drew students from as far afield as London, Devon, and Northern Ireland. It says much for the dedication of the staff that all 131 teaching units were written by members of the staff in their own time. The increasing spread of new technology, both within and outwith the trade, resulted in a diminishing demand for formal apprentice train­ing and the Department of Printing closed in 1986.

Iain D. McIntosh, 2022