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| Matthew Carey (publisher) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Matthew Carey |
| Birth date | 1760 |
| Birth place | Dublin, Kingdom of Ireland |
| Death date | 1839 |
| Death place | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Occupation | Printer, publisher, bookseller |
| Notable works | The American Museum; Carey's American Edition of British Classics; The Plain Dealer (pamphlet) |
| Spouse | Anne Fisher |
| Children | Henry Charles Carey; others |
Matthew Carey (publisher) was an Irish-born American printer, publisher, bookseller, and philanthropist who became a central figure in early United States print culture. He emigrated from Dublin to Philadelphia in the 1780s and established a prolific press that produced newspapers, political pamphlets, almanacs, travel narratives, classical editions, and musical works. Through his publishing ventures and civic activities he influenced discourse around Republicanism, Federalist Party opposition, commercial development, and cultural formation in the early republic.
Carey was born in Dublin into an environment shaped by the Irish Volunteer movement and the political ferment of the 1770s and 1780s. As an apprentice and journeyman in the Dublin printing trade he encountered texts associated with the United Irishmen and the print culture surrounding the Act of Union 1800 debates. Pressures from wartime trade disruptions and the transatlantic networks of printers prompted his decision to join other Irish emigrants bound for North America after the American Revolutionary War. Carey arrived in Philadelphia in 1784, where he found a thriving urban print market centered on institutions such as the Library Company of Philadelphia and the reading public created by newspapers like the Pennsylvania Packet.
Carey established a shop on Market Street (Philadelphia) and launched an ambitious program that blended commercial, educational, and political printing. He published the periodical The American Museum, which competed with Philadelphia journals such as the North American Review and the Aurora General Advertiser, and reissued British literature for an American audience in projects like Carey's American Edition of British Classics, drawing on the backlist of Samuel Johnson and editions associated with Benjamin Franklin's legacy. His printing house produced pamphlets responding to policy controversies involving figures like Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams, and printed maps, atlases, and statistical works used by merchants and legislators connected to the First Bank of the United States debates. Carey also operated a circulating library akin to enterprises run by Mathew Carey (bookseller)'s contemporaries, competing with booksellers such as Thomas Dobson and Moses Thomas.
He printed travel narratives including accounts tied to voyages of exploration that referenced sources like the journals of James Cook and reports used by readers interested in Louisiana Purchase implications. Through subscription publishing Carey brought continental works into American hands, issuing editions of Adam Smith, David Hume, Edward Gibbon, and legal texts admired by jurists influenced by the Common Law tradition. His firm supplied textbooks to academies and colleges such as University of Pennsylvania and printed school primers that echoed educational reforms associated with figures like Noah Webster.
Carey's printing work placed him at the center of partisan and civic debates. He allied with Democratic-Republican circles in opposition to policies championed by Alexander Hamilton and published essays and pamphlets critical of Federalist measures including the Alien and Sedition Acts. His interventions intersected with the careers of politicians such as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, while his newspapers and tracts engaged with controversies involving Aaron Burr and the sectional tensions leading up to the War of 1812. Beyond partisan journalism he participated in civic institutions: he supported the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, contributed to the Franklin Institute's educational mission, and served on boards tied to charitable enterprises associated with leading citizens like Benjamin Rush and William White (bishop).
Carey's political advocacy extended into commercial policy debates; he published statistical monographs and petitions arguing for protective tariffs and internal improvements that connected him to mercantile interests active in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River trade networks. His pamphleteering shaped public opinion during elections and municipal reforms in Philadelphia.
A prolific literary entrepreneur, Carey edited and printed poetry, drama, and anthologies that helped cultivate an American reading public familiar with both British and homegrown authors. He issued editions of works by William Shakespeare and British romantic poets alongside American writers such as Philip Freneau and Joel Barlow. Carey promoted American music publishing, printing sheet music and collections used by amateur and professional performers connected to venues like the Chestnut Street Theatre and musical societies influenced by Benjamin Carr and Raynor Taylor. His catalogs advertised instructional materials, hymnals for congregations affiliated with First Presbyterian Church (Philadelphia) and pieces performed in civic ceremonies honoring figures like George Washington.
Carey's publishing of sentimental novels, conduct literature, and travel writing reflected transatlantic tastes and helped create markets later exploited by printers such as Graham & Company and Harper & Brothers. He nurtured a generation of American readers and composers who would shape nineteenth-century literature and music.
Carey's enterprise diversified into banking, insurance, and real estate; he invested in ventures such as canal and turnpike companies that tied him to infrastructure projects like the Schuylkill Navigation Company. His son, Henry Charles Carey, carried forward the family's engagement with political economy and publishing, becoming a prominent economist associated with the American System debates and influencing figures including Daniel Webster and industrialists in New England and Pennsylvania. Matthew Carey's imprint persisted in American print culture through editions, libraries, and institutional patronage; his role in building subscription networks and fostering an American book trade anticipates later developments involving publishers such as Little, Brown and Company and Harper & Brothers.
He died in Philadelphia in 1839, leaving a substantial corpus of printed material that historians consult in studies of early American print, politics, and culture, and his name is associated with philanthropic endowments and collections dispersed among institutions like the American Philosophical Society and the Library Company of Philadelphia.
Category:American publishers (people) Category:Irish emigrants to the United States Category:1760 births Category:1839 deaths