Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Youth's Companion Happy New Year

With the New Year upon us I thought these cards were appropriate ones for this week.

The Youth's Companion was an extremely popular magazine for juveniles. It was published in Boston by The Perry Mason Company from 1827 to 1929 when it was absorbed by The American Boy. ( Apparently this company's name is the origin of the Perry Mason name used by Erle Stanley Gardner in his books).

So let these cards wish anyone who glances at this site a happy New Year.

Cary

Thursday, December 23, 2010

D. Lothrop and Co. Trade Card


Here is another piece of ephemera from the Lothrop book publishing firm. Perfect for this time of the year, it is a Christmas card which advertises a book sale.

Many of the book publishers of this era also sold books to make ends meet. With this card Lothrop announces that it will no longer be in the retail business.

D. Lothrop & co. was at the Franklin Street (on the corner of Franklin and Hawley) address between 1875 and 1887. Prior to that Lothrop was on Cornhill Street. Although I cannot be certain, I believe this card dates from 1886. That is the year when Lothrop advertisements changed from "Publishers and Booksellers" to say only " Publishers".

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Lothrop and Co. Pioneer Postcard 1885


Here is a pioneer postcard from 1885. D. Lothrop & Co. has been reviewed in this blog previously. Throughout several name iterations it was a major publisher from 1868 to 1904.

To give you some idea of the output of this publisher appreciate that I have so far discovered more than 300 children's/ juvenile book series that it published. In the revision of my 19th century children's/ juvenile series book this dwarfs the output of any other publisher.

The card shown here is a great piece of book publisher ephemera. Pioneer postcards are those that were produced prior to July 1, 1898. The card shown here is dated October 28, 1885 and postmarked the same day.

On the reverse side of the card you can see advertisements at the top for Lothrop's children's magazines. But the fascinating thing about this card is the that the addressee is the B. Westermann Co. and the subject is about the binding of a book.

Westermann was a foreign bookseller and importer. I am assuming that the book mentioned by Lothrop on the card is "Alaska, Its Southern Coast and Sitkan Archipelago" by E. Ruhamah Scidmore, 1885. It would seem that Lothrop was going to sell this title through an arrangement with Westermann. The details of the business arrangement are unknown to me but this postcard does make clear that there was a relationship between the two companies

A very interesting card.