Jacob Stauffer Prints and Publishes His Own Botanical Discoveries

The advantage of being both a printer and an amateur scientist in the 1850s is that you could publish your own scientific discoveries.

In 1853, Jacob Stauffer published and printed a curious little pamphlet about his plant discoveries in Mount Joy, Lancaster County.  He moved there from the nearby village of Manheim, and brought with him the first printing press both towns had ever seen.

Jacob crafted this pamphlet entirely by hand: He wrote the manuscript, drew the illustrations, printed the lithographs, printed the text, and stitched the pages.

Rev. Dr. Morris, of Baltimore, was properly impressed by Jacob's production and exclaimed that he "knew of no other savan except Mr. Sturm, of Nuremberg, who could write, set up, illustrate and print his own work." (Biographical History of Lancaster County. Alexander Harris)

Jacob used this pamhlet to announce to the world the discoveries he had made during his botanical rambles in the Mount Joy area.  Jacob was the first to discover that several local wildflowers (Comandra and Gerardia, Here and Here) had parasitic root systems. The pamphlet is titled "On the Parasitism of Comandra and Gerardia." 

Jacob was encouraged to publish these findings by Dr. Asa Gray of Harvard, the most important American botanist of that century.  Jacob could not say No to Dr. Gray ...hence this exceptional little pamphlet.