AustLit

James Walker (1824-1865) and brothers John and Thomas May were printers in Scotland before migrating together to Melbourne in 1854. They founded the business Walker, May in Stephen Street, Melbourne in 1855, but soon moved to Little Collins Street, and then to Bourke Street, where in January 1861 their premises were destroyed by fire.

John May had learned electrotyping and stereotyping in Scotland, and he was a pioneer of these skills in Victoria. Walker, May published the Melbourne Monthly Magazine (1855) and printed a range of other Melbourne periodicals, including Touchstone, the Melbourne Review, the Victorian, Tatler, the Economist, and the Typographical Journal. In 1874 the firm moved to McKillop Street, where they shared the stationery and publishing building owned by George Robertson. Robertson used Walker, May extensively as printers for his firm's publications, and for many works of Australian literature, such as the first publication in book form of Marcus Clarkes' His Natural Life (1874). The George Robertson factory in McKillop Street closed in 1917, and Walker, May moved to 431 Bourke Street.

James Walker died in 1865 at the age of 41, and his son James entered the business, which continued after the deaths of John and Thomas May in 1898 and 1905 respectively. The business closed when the younger James Walker died in 1924.