The Victoria Press was started by Emily Faithfull in London, in 1860.
Faithfull was a member of The Society for Promoting the Employment of Women. She was convinced that work as a compositor could be a well-suited trade for women seeking occupation (by the nineteenth century, this was generally a well-paid industry). Faithfull learned type-setting. She founded the press, and then went on to train and hire other women as compositors for her shop. She generated hostility from the male-dominated Printer's Union, in London. The Union denied women access to compositor's work, using the justification that women lacked the mechanical ability and the intelligence to be compositors. Faithfull however persevered, and her press continued for years. Publications from her press included two periodicals: The English Women's Journal and The Victoria Magazine, both of which promoted the employment of women.
Famous quotes containing the words victoria and/or press:
“The men who are grandfathers should be the fathers. Grandpas get to do it right with their grandchildren.”
—Anonymous Grandparent. As quoted in Women and Their Fathers, by Victoria Secunda, ch. 2 (1992)
“Flee from the press and dwell with soothfastness;
Suffice unto thy good though it be small,
For hoard hath hate and climbing ticklishness,
Press hath envy and weal blent overall;”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)