Like John R Gavit, Ralph Rawdon established his printing firm in Albany, New York. After being involved with several printing firms he and his brother Freeman Rawdon founded a printing company in New York, NY sometime shortly after 1825.

In 1828 the Rawdon brothers merged their firm with Neziah Wright, forming Rawdon Wright & Co.. With the joining of Tracy R Edson the company in 1832, he became such a key player that in 1847 the company name was changed to Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson

One item of interest its that Tracy R Edson invented a ink that was not washable, it was colored green. It was used as the ink on the reverse of American dollar bills, and as we all know we still have the greenback today.

In 1847 the company won the government contract to supply the first American postage stamps. Along with six other printers they merged into the American Bank Note Company. At the time of the merger Tracy R Edson was the president of Rawdon, Wright, Hatch and Edson, and their company was the biggest part of the merger owning 27% of the stock. Unfortunately for Tracy he was not made president of the new company as the new company was using the new green ink without recompense to Tracy and Tracy was not happy about that. Tracy took the American Bank Note Company to court and lost.

The green ink was a financial rewarding invention, here they advertised its benefits