The Lawrence F. Albers and George J. Albers Collection of Strobridge Lithography Company Calendar Cards. 
US-07-01

Gift of Jeanne A. Rennell

Tracing its origin to 1847 and a small Cincinnati stationery store, the Strobridge Lithography Company was at one time one of America’s most important lithography firms.  Its signature products were circus, theater, and movie posters, and it was a rare city that did not display Strobridge’s work in some fashion.

The firm was founded by Elijah Middleton at his store located at Third and Walnut Streets in the city’s basin.  By 1854, Middleton had taken on as partners a lithographer from Philadelphia, W.R. Wallace, and local bookseller Hines Strobridge.  In the years following the Civil War, Strobridge bought out his partners and named the business after himself.  In 1884, Strobridge built a factory along the Miami-Erie Canal in Over-the-Rhine and began production of the posters that would make his fortune.

After a fire briefly closed the plant in 1887, Strobridge rebuilt immediately, and a few years later, he added offices in New York City and the Cincinnati suburban city of Norwood.  By the time of the Great Depression, however, Strobridge’s business waned as the demand for circus and theater posters diminished.  The company turned to movie posters, becoming one of the pioneers in that medium of advertising.  But by 1961, Strobridge was sold to the H.S. Crocker printing company, and ten years later in 1971, that firm closed its doors, thus bringing to an end a significant part of Cincinnati’s printing history.

Known for his panoramas and caricatures, Matthew Morgan (1839-1890) was an English artist and news correspondent who immigrated to America in 1872.  He worked as a cartoonist for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated News in New York, as well as managing several theaters, before moving to Cincinnati in 1878.  Hired as the art director for the Strobridge firm, Morgan greatly enhanced the reputation of its theater poster art, and while a Queen City resident, he also dabbled in art pottery and helped found the Cincinnati Art Students League.  Morgan returned to New York in 1887 and became renowned for his Civil War panoramic paintings.

The 114 cards in the Albers Collection are monthly calendars produced by the Strobridge Lithography Company from the 1890s to World War I.  Each card measures 15.6 by 8.7 centimeters. Ranging from 1897 to 1917, they are exquisite examples of Art Nouveau design in America, showing the artistry and printing skills of the company to its highest advantage.  The cards functioned as “home advertising” for the firm, and as these examples show, were punched with holes so they could be displayed on a kitchen or office wall.  The color separations are remarkable, and the vivid beauty of the illustrations perfectly captures the collaboration between artist and craftsman.

The Strobridge cards have been donated to the Urban Studies Collection of the Archives & Rare Books Library by Jeanne Rennell in honor of her father, Lawrence Albers, and her uncle, George Albers.  Lawrence (b. 1916) and George (b. 1914) were raised in Cincinnati.  After their father died in the devastating Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918, their mother took a job as a buyer for Pogue’s Department Store and raised the boys with the help of her sister.  The two boys often won blue ribbons for their design work entered in the annual Rotary Club Boy’s Hobby Fair in the 1920s and 1930s, and at one point were awarded a special “Grand Prize” so that first prize could be given to another entrant.  One year they built a scale model of the Times Star Building, and another time they created a model village complete with school, church, houses, fire department, and offices – all with orange crates begged from a local grocer.

The Strobridge calendar cards exhibited here were originally collected by the Rev. George Albers.

For more Strobridge history, please follow these links:

www.circushistory.org/Cooke/Cooke22.htm

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/rbmscl/strobridge/inv/