Isaiah Thomas (January 19, 1749 – April 4, 1831) was an early American printer, newspaper publisher and author.

He performed the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in Worcester, Massachusetts, and reported the first account of the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

[2] In Boston, in 1774, Thomas published the Royal American Magazine, which was continued for a short time by Joseph Greenleaf, and which contained many engravings by Paul Revere.

[3] Wary of the Tories' growing resentment of the independence of the Spy, on April 16, 1775 (three days before the Battle of Lexington, in which he took part), Thomas took his presses from Boston and set them up in Worcester.

[5] Fully titled History of Printing in America, with a Biography of Printers, and an Account of Newspapers, it was published in two volumes in 1810.

[5] In addition to nearly 8,000 volumes from his collection, he gave to its library tracts, and one of the most valuable files of newspapers in the country, and he presented land and a hall, with a provision equal to $24,000 for its maintenance.

"He saw and understood, no man better, from what infinitely varied and minute sources the history of a nation's life was to be drawn; that the only safe rule was to gather up all the fragments so that nothing be lost.