Congress ends decades of patronage printing; a federal office will do the work itself

By 1860, the federal government had been farming out its printing work to private contractors for decades — an arrangement plagued by patronage, inflated costs, and inconsistent quality. On June 23, 1860, Congress passed a joint resolution establishing the Government Printing Office to bring that work in-house, under direct federal control. The GPO opened its doors on March 4, 1861 — the same day Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated — with 350 employees and a mandate to serve all three branches of government. The brick building it eventually planted at North Capitol and H Street NW became one of the largest printing operations in the world…