Excelsior Printing Press

  11 December  -  

This printing press was the social media of its day. It was possibly used at Te Kauwhanganui parliament near Maungakawa, north of Cambridge  in the 1890s.

Te Kauhanganui understood the power of the press.  Te Kauhanganui was a Māori parliament established in 1890 by King Tāwhiao.  It was based at Maungakawa pa just north of Cambridge.  It managed a bank with its own currency, a police force and newspaper Te Paki o Matariki.  One can imagine just how useful a printing press was in this environment.  But by the end of the 1890s Maungakawa pa was deserted, possibly due to a devastating influenza epidemic.

No one knows when or why this printing press was dumped in a gully at Te Miro.  The platen and one of the handles had been broken off, leaving it useless.  Was this an act of protest or sabotage?

It was discovered and salvaged in 1958 by Cambridge Historical Society member and farm owner Bob Muirhead.  Assisting him were members Beer, Carter, Feisst, Hewitt, Moore and Porter.  It took that many people to rescue such a heavy object.

This Kelsey Company tabletop press is used for single sheet printing.  Printing presses similar to this were used right up to the mid-1970s.

To imagine how it might have worked, watch this 2 minute video created by the Sacramento Museum which shows a similar press printing a card.

A Māori newspaper called “Te Paki o Matariki” or “The Girdle of the Pleiades” (Seven Sisters Constellation) was also published at Te Kauhanganui from 1891 to 1902. Very few copies of the papers remain.

Object details

• Maker: Kelsey Company
• Where: USA
• When: 1878
• Materials: Metal
• Measurements: 82 x 52 x 52cm

We would like to thank Sacramento Museum for giving us permission to share this video.