Several weeks ago, this column discussed the famed Cattell family — the psychologists James McKeen Cattell and his daughter Psyche Cattell — and their associations with Lancaster.

The Scribbler asked for further information about Science Press and the Cattell Press to pass along to Shawn Gallagher, a psychology professor at Millersville University who is studying the Cattells and their work.

Lancastrian Hudson Cattell, Psyche's son, and Jean Bomberger, daughter of the president of an old Lancaster publishing firm, have provided the following information.

Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison began a publication called Science about 1880. Science failed twice before James McKeen Cattell resurrected it in 1895. Cattell established Science Press in New York City to publish Science and other journals.

Under Cattell's direction, the press also began publishing The Biographical Directory of American Men of Science.

In 1923, Cattell began the Science Press Printing Co. in Lancaster, primarily because the city was an established printing center, according to Hudson Cattell.

The business eventually moved into a building across McGovern Avenue from the Pennsylvania Railroad station. Much of that building has been demolished.

Cattell's son, Jaques, founded the Jaques Cattell Press sometime in the 1930s and began publishing works of popular science in his father's Lancaster plant.

James Cattell remained in New York, living upstate along the Hudson River and working on Science Press materials in an office in Grand Central Terminal in New York City.

"When war broke out in 1941, with gas rationing and everything, it seemed advisable to consolidate things," Hudson Cattell explains of what happened next.

James Cattell gave his home to his oldest son, closed the office in Grand Central Terminal, moved to Lancaster and built a large apartment on top of the printing plant on McGovern Avenue. He died there in 1944.

The printing plant was sold to Hughes Printing Corp. to settle the estate. It was renamed the Business Press and published prestigious magazines such as Foreign Affairs and Commentary.

This is where Jean Bomberger comes in.

In 1947, her father, Walter L. Connor, took over as president of Lancaster Business Press. The family lived in James Cattell's huge apartment from 1947 to 1980.

The apartment had 16 rooms and four stone fireplaces, Bomberger recalls. One of the main attractions was living near the train station.

"All my relatives would come in on the train," she says. "I'd go across the street to meet them and slide down that brass rail."

The apartment still exists, she notes, but it has been carved into several sections.

Returning to the Cattells: After the printing plant was sold to Hughes, James Cattell's son, Jaques, kept the name of Science Press.

In the mid-1950s, he sold Science Press to Hughes, which moved it to Ephrata, where it remains as a division of Cadmus Communications Corp. Hudson Cattell worked as publications manager for Science Press from 1953 to 1958.

Jaques Cattell moved to Arizona and continued operating the Jaques Cattell Press. He died in 1961.

So there is a connection, although not direct, between Science Press and the Jaques Cattell Press.

Like many things in publishing, the story is complex. But not all publishing stories begin with the likes of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison and James McKeen Cattell.

Contact The Scribbler: jbrubaker@lnpnews.com or 291-8781.