AustLit

The printing business Fergusson and Moore was founded in Melbourne around 1860, when James Fergusson and William Moore entered into a partnership to take over the business of William Goodhugh in Flinders Lane. Both were printers, from Glasgow. Fergusson spent a period on the goldfields before joining the Argus; Moore was a night overseer on the Herald, who had worked for Goodhugh.

Fergusson and Moore was a very active and prestigious Melbourne printing firm, which occasionally embarked on large publishing projects, such as Blair's landmark Cyclopaedia of Australasia, published in 1881. A number of future master printers gained their training and experience at Fergusson and Moore, such as Andrew Stewart, John McCarron and Herman Puttmann, who left to form the partnership McCarron Bird in 1872.

William Moore died in August 1880, and his son Alex took over his share of the partnership until he too died, in 1886. James Fergusson died in 1888. Charles Edgerton, who had done his apprenticeship in the business, joined as a partner and it continued for a period as Edgerton and Moore.