Friday, August 28, 2009

Donohoue and Henneberry Advertising Cover


No matter what type of ephemera someone is collecting it. An area that I do not know much about is advertising covers. As you probably do know, my interest is in books and related items. So it is no wonder that there is a crossover between my interests and envelopes, err, I mean advertising covers. Since I thought from time to time I would show an interesting advertising cover, I figured that I should know something about them.
There is a nice site which reviews the terminology :
http://alphabetilately.com/A.html Hopefully I will not mess up too badly in describing these items.

Shown here is a great cover from Donohue and Henneberry. Based on the site noted above I think it is a "topical advertising cover". Its building is shown in addition a mention of its "Red Line Series" was made. This series is the only printing done by the company in the 1880's. The Red Line Series remained popular into the 1890's. The Red Line Series however was not a series of reading books. It was rather a series of school registers, report cards, diplomas, receipt books and the like. In fact the Donohue and Henneberry 1889 catalogue lists four pages of this kind of "red line" item for sale.

Early on this company was a bookbinder only. From 1871-1878 they were Donohue, Wilson and Henneberry and as a bookbinder was succeeded by Donohue and Henneberry. The publisher came to be in 1890 as Donohue, Henneberry and Company. In 1900 they were succeeded by Donohue Brothers as Michael A. Donohue went in one direction and William F. Henneberry went in another becoming Henneberry Company. In 1901 Donohue Brothers became M.A. Donohue. Throughout the 1800's they were located at the Dearborn address in Chicago.

In addition to publishing and binding books, they manufactured office supplies-pads of paper, pencils, crayons, clips, etc.

13 comments:

  1. I have a D&H cover, too, and a draft about it waiting to be completed. Glad you beat me to it and provided the interesting link to Alphabetilately, which I had not seen before. These ad covers are among my favorite types of ephemera to collect for book trade ephemera. Usually some good history to be gleaned from them.

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  2. Thanks Chuck. When I started to look at the advertising covers information, I realized as with most collecting areas that there is a lot more to it than I had originally thought. Cary

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  3. I have a little, worn book, published by Donohue Brothers, Chicago, 407-429 Dearborn Street. The title is "Essay of Elia" and it's written by Charles Lamb. It's really interesting to know that the publisher only went by the name Donohue Brothers for such a short time. Thank you for the info.

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  4. Going through my grandmothers things I found a gift given to her: "Gertrude Plummer Merry Christmas 1896" it was a Washington Irving Book titled.Bracebridge Hall published by Donohue, Henneberry & Co.4o7 429 Dearborn Street Chicago. I am interested in learning more before putting it on e-bay.

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  5. I was trying to find the publishing date for a nice copy of Alice by Lytton, and ran across this. I was wondering why I couldn't find any information on the Donohue Brothers! Thanks.

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  6. I found the book The Adventures of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens with illustrations by F. Mahoney and not sure of the worth? Would anyone be able to help me out? Thanks

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  7. I just picked up a copy of "The Story of an African Farm" published by Donohue Brothers (D-Bro's. on spine). The gift inscription is dated 'Dec 25 1903'. It contains the preface to the second edition so I knew it wasn't a first but your site is the only other information I have found. Thank you and aloha.

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  8. I am having trouble finding any information about a book that my mother had. It's entitled "Foaks and Peeple" by Betsey Brown, although it was copyrighted by J. M. Eby in 1888. It was published by Donohue & Hennebery, Chicago, and lists them as printers and binders. I'm wondering if "Betsey Brown" isn't a pen name for J.M. Eby, but can't find any information on it.

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  9. I found a copy of "Treasure Island" published by Donohue Brothers(D-Bro's on spine)and trying to find if it is valuable or not. havent found any info on this book or the publishers. There isnt even a publishing date in it can you help?

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    Replies
    1. Be intrested in what you found out, I have the same book
      emja55@cox.net

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  10. Dear bibliomaven,

    Curious about what Timezone you wrote this in? I am curious in order to cite this post.

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  11. Thanks for mentioning my web site Alphabetilately - the URL has changed to
    http://alphabetilately.org
    Same content, new and improved! Safe for children and pets, NO TRANS FATS!
    Regards, Bill Senkus

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