Lista de los Ciu­dadanos que Deberan Com­poner los Jura­dos de Imprenta, For­mada por el Ayun­tamiento de esta Cap­i­tal, Santa Fe, 1834. Gift of J. M. Thor­ing­ton, Class of 1915.

The ear­li­est sur­viv­ing imprint of the press in what is now New Mex­ico is this broad­side: “List of the Cit­i­zens Who May Serve As Jurors on Tri­als on the Press, Made for the Coun­cil of the Cap­i­tal.”  It was printed on the “Press of Roman Abreu in Charge of Jesus Maria Baca” and is dated August 14, 1834.  The doc­u­ment reflects the 1828 Mex­i­can law passed to pro­tect the free­dom of the press and cit­i­zens against libel.  Law­suits con­cern­ing the press were to be heard by jurors cho­sen by the munic­i­pal coun­cils of every town that sup­ported a news­pa­per.  New Mex­ico, since its first Euro­pean set­tle­ments in 1598, had seen lit­tle need for a press; but the changes wrought by Mex­i­can inde­pen­dence in 1821 and the open­ing of the Santa Fe Trail to the Anglo-American set­tle­ments in the United States quickly made a press and its atten­dant dan­gers a necessity.

For a detailed account of the Lista de los Ciu­dadanos… broad­side, see:

Boyd, E. “The First New Mex­ico Imprint.” Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity Library Chron­i­cle Vol­ume XXXIII, No. 1 (Autumn 1971): 30–40.