Anne Catherine Hoof Green

Anne Catherine Hoof Green
Detail of paper in above painting, showing the words "Annapolis printer to..." referring to her succeeding her husband as official printer of Maryland.
For other people of the same name, see Anne Green.

Anne Catherine Hoof Green (c. 1720 – March 23, 1775) was a printer and publisher.

Anne Hoof was most likely born in the Netherlands around 1720. She emigrated to America and lived in Annapolis, Maryland. She married Jonas Green (c.1720-1767) of Boston in 1738 and had fourteen children, with six surviving infancy.[1]

Green's paper was the main source for news. "The Maryland Gazette was the province's principal source of news in the period leading up to the Revolution, and in its pages the issues of the day were hotly debated." John Dickinson's celebrated Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer were first published in that journal.[2] The Greens were originally from Philadelphia but moved to Annapolis once Jonas was given the orders of taking over the Maryland Gazette. In Annapolis the Greens rented a house on Charles Street. At the time it was a small two story house with a kitchen and two bedrooms. During the early 1740s the owner of the house expanded it to contain a print shop, post office, and room for their 14 children.[3]

After the death of Jonas, in the April 16, 1767 issue of the paper Anne announced that she would continue to publish the paper. She became the printer of the General Assembly, taking over her husband's contract.[1]

The Maryland Gazette was critical of British policy. Green had her portrait painted by Charles Willson Peale after he returned to America in 1769. The words "Annapolis printer to..." appear on the paper Anne is holding in the portrait, referring to Maryland legislature's choice to have Anne succeed her husband as the official printer of the colony of Maryland. Under her guidance business was thriving, and she became one of the few women of her time to gain success in the male-dominated business world.[3]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Anne Catherine Hoof Green". Princeton University. Retrieved 2009-03-18. Married to Jonas Green of Boston in 1738, Ann Catharine Hoof Green seems to have been entirely occupied for the first thirty years of their marriage with bearing their fourteen children, and rearing the six who survived infancy. Upon Jonas's death in 1767, however, she assumed control of his printing operations and successfully petitioned the Maryland legislature to appoint her public printer to the province, a post her husband had also held. With the help of her son William, she completed the printing of the Acts and Votes of the 1767 session. The province at first paid her fee in tobacco, the local currency, until in 1770 she was commissioned to print $318,000 in paper money. Ann also continued to publish The Maryland Gazette, the newspaper established by Jonas in 1745.
  2. ↑ "Anne Catherine Hoof Green". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 MacLean, Maggie. "Anne Catherine Green: Colonial Printer and Publisher". History of American Women. Retrieved 23 August 2013.

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