Clementina Rind (ca. 1740-1774)

Clementina Rind, the first female printer in Virginia, had moved to Williamsburg by 1766. She likely worked alongside her husband, William Rind, who ran a print shop, published the Virginia Gazette, and printed official government documents for the colony. After his death in 1773, she took over the shop and newspaper, was elected public printer in her own right, and supported the couple’s young children. As publisher of the Gazette during a crucial period of deepening divisions between the colonies and Great Britain, Rind helped shape public perceptions of the conflict. She printed Thomas Jefferson’s tract A Summary View of the Rights of British America in 1774, shortly before her death.