Nathaniel Baldwin

• formal_name:
• first_date: 1799
• last_date: 1818
• function: Publisher
• locales: Martinsburg
• precis: Publisher of The Potomak Guardian (1798) at Martinsburg with Nathaniel Willis (449).
• notes: Publisher
  Martinsburg
  Publisher of The Potomak Guardian (1798) at Martinsburg with Nathaniel Willis (449).
  Baldwin has a brief association with the Virginia print trade. His mere six-month association with Nathaniel Willis, the founder of the then decade-old Potomack Guardian, indicates that he was the paper's financier at a time of fiscal distress for the printer. His Jeffersonian journal was under attack from local Federalist leaders, suggesting that Baldwin was either a gesture of accommodation to them or a source of outside capital replacing lost revenues. But which role he served cannot be discerned from the few issues of the Guardian that survive from this period. The common nature of his surname, both in this area and in the American printing trade, makes further identification of Baldwin conjectural at best.
  
  No Personal Data discovered
  
  Source: Brigham; Norona & Shetler; Brigham misidentifies him as Isaac Baldwin; N&S correct that error from the few surviving imprints; Rice claims partnership resulted from John Alburtis' defection from the office, but that did not occur until March 1799.
  
• Related Bios:
  • Nathaniel Willis, Sr.
  • Nathaniel Willis, Jr.

This version of the Index of Virginia Printing was a gift from the estate of the site's creator, David Rawson. The content contained herein will not be updated, as it is part of the Library of Virginia's personal papers collection. For more information, please see David Rawson Index of Virginia Printing website. Accession 53067. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.