Joseph Gibbs served an apprenticeship as a printer and stationer in England before emigrating to Australia, arriving in Port Philip on the Indian Queen in 1852. He worked on the staff of The Age for three years before purchasing the failed Melbourne printing firm Slater, Williams & Hodgson with three partners: Joseph Shallard, Alfred Henry Massina, and William Clarson. The firm decided to set a Sydney branch, and Gibbs, a trained printer, was chosen to head up the Sydney operation. From about 1866 the partnership dissolved and the Sydney and Melbourne branches separated, with Gibbs trading with Joseph Shallard as Gibbs, Shallard & Co.
Gibbs and Shallard prospered in Sydney. For several years the partners lived in Bligh Street, Sydney, while the business operated in Pitt Street. After Shallard returned to Melbourne about 1877, Gibbs continued to run the business successfully. By 1880, his private residence was 'Ashbourne' in the inner west suburb of Ashfield.
After a disastrous fire destroyed the premises and printing machinery of Gibbs, Shallard and Co. in 1890, Gibbs struggled to rebuild the business. He was unable to do this, and the firm was ultimately sold in 1892. Gibbs seems also to have personally struggled rebuild after the fire; he listed at five different addresses in Sydney directories between 1893 and 1903. By 1899, he was back in business as a printer in Pitt Street, trading under his own name - it is unclear how long this operation lasted. By 1910 Gibbs had moved to Randwick in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. He died there, aged 95, in 1925.
