In the year 1791, George Roulston, the first printer to enter the State of Tennessee, took his press apart in Fayetteville, North Carolina, packed it on horses’ backs or in wagons and trekked over the trails of the Blue Ridge Mountains into the Holston Valley where Kingsport now stands. There, on the banks of the Holston River at James King’s Boat Yard, he loaded it on a flatboat and floated it down to Rogersville where he set it up and started printing the Knoxville Gazette, the first piece of printing ever attempted in Tennessee

A replica of Roulstone’s 1791 newspaper, printed on his press, is on display at the Tennessee Newspaper and Printing Museum. Also on exhibit are the contents of three other print shops from our area, dating back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. All the peripheral equipment a print shop would have are also exhibited – a large paper cutter, type cabinets, work tables, wire stitchers, proof presses and so on.

A centerpiece of the exhibit is the last linotype machine to be used to set type for a newspaper in Tennessee. It came from the Rogersville Review, where it was used until 1982. Also on exhibit are many newspapers from Rogersville’s history, some of them original copies and some photocopies.