Robert Aitken (Bible Publisher)

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Robert Aitken (1734–1802) was a Philadelphia printer and the first to publish a Bible in the newly formed United States. He was born in Dalkeith, Scotland.

He started in Philadelphia as a bookseller in 1769 and 1771. He started publication of The Pennsylvania Magazine in 1775, continuing through 1776. He also printed copies of the New Testament in 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1781.

The war with Britain cut off the supply of Bibles to the United States with the result that on September 11, 1777, the Continental Congress instructed its Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 Bibles from "Scotland, Holland or elsewhere." On January 21, 1781, Aitken petitioned Congress to officially sanction a publication of the Old and New Testaments which he was preparing at his own expense. Congress replied that its members "highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken, as subservient to the interest of religion ... in this country, and ... they recommend this edition of the bible to the inhabitants of the United States." With this approval, he went ahead and published the first complete Bible in North America, in 1782. He died in Philadelphia in 1802.