Thomas Dobson (printer)

Thomas Dobson (1751 near Edinburgh, Scotland – 1823 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a master printer most famous for having published the earliest American version of the Encyclopædia Britannica, and the first in the United States to publish a complete Hebrew Bible.

In this era, enterprising American printers were matching their British counterparts in quality and quantity, and severely undercutting them in price as well.

Dobson's encyclopædia had 16,650 pages with 595 engraved copperplates; both numbers are slightly greater than their British counterparts.

In support of Dobson's patriotic initiative, then-President George Washington subscribed to two sets of his first American encyclopædia, one of which now rests with most of the rest of George Washington's personal library in the Boston Athenæum.

Dobson also published the first secular music composed by an American, namely, Seven Songs for Harpsichord by Francis Hopkinson.