JOHNSON, Lawrence, type founder, born in Hull, England, 23 January, 1801; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 26 April, 1860. After serving an apprenticeship of seven years in the printing office of John Childs and Son, in Bungay, Suffolk County, England, he induced his parents to emigrate with him to the United States, where they arrived in 1819, and purchased a farm in Cayuga county, New York he afterward went to New York city, where he entered a printing office as a compositor. In 1820 his attention was directed to stereotyping, and after obtaining some knowledge of it in the employ of Messrs. B. and J. Collins in New York, he removed to Philadelphia, where he established a successful stereotype foundry, and in 1833 he purchased the Philadelphia type foundry, which, under his management, became one of the largest in the country. One of his last acts, in conjunction with other type founders of Philadelphia, was to procure from congress a modification of the copyright law to afford protection to engravers, letter cutters, and designers.