Nan Prince, assistant director of collections, brings us this post about interesting artifacts in the Museum Division collection.
This Lowe handpress belonged to Mr. Harry Kersting, who was probably the last professional wood engraver in Jackson. He moved to Mississippi in 1955, at the age of eighty-one, from Cincinnati, Ohio, to be near his daughter and her family.
The Lowe press was patented by Samuel Lowe of Philadelphia in 1856. It was a small, amateur press that was first exhibited at the Fair of the American Institute at the Crystal Palace in New York in 1857, where it was awarded a prize for being inexpensive and easy to use.