Saturday, September 19, 2009

Crider and Brother Bookstore and Stationer



A number of bookstores were active in publishing as well as selling books. Most of them never advanced past the stage of being a minor publisher. The Crider book store is one of them.

I have three pieces of ephemera shown here today from Crider and Brother at 27 West market Street in York, Pa. David Crider along with H.M. Crider and S.L. Kephart began the Kephart, Crider and Brother in 1865. When Kephart retired the firm became Crider and Brother. After H.M. Crider left the firm the name stayed Crider and Brother. The firm specialized in marriage certificates initially and book publishing when David Crider took over. The marriage certificate business seemed to be the big money maker.




























H. M. Crider after leaving the firm was also a bookseller and stationer. His shop failed in 1885.

Some of the firms published works included the Song Treasury, Bright Gems and Silvery Echoes. All books that I am sure everyone has on their shelf today.

In 1899 the bookstore was sold.

8 comments:

  1. While renovating a 100+ year old house I came across a 3 1/4" X 5 card with a beautiful picture of a bird on a flowering apple branch with a lake in the background. The bottom right reads [OVER] and the back says
    This Chromo Card No. 12 as noticed on Enclosed Card circular will be furnished with SCRIPTURE TEXT, REWARD OF MERIT; or like this one, BLANK on the other side at seventy-five cents per hundred. You will want them with Scripture Text for the pupils of your Sunday School. Address all orders to
    H.M. Crider, Publisher,
    York, Pa
    Thanks for the information. I thought this might interest you

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  2. I have a baptismal certificate for William E. Williams from the Reformed Church Lehigh County PA dated 4-20-1878 and Crider & Bro.Publishers issued it.
    Could this be one and the same? I was trying to find out who this person was as well.

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  3. This is great post. I actually searched for this type of post. Thus i am here. I read the post and amused to see its content. This is really a helpful post. Thanks for sharing this kind of informative post.

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  4. I have a poster with the Our Father Prayer on it along with this company name. can you give me any info on this?

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  5. I have a marriage booklet (copy) from my grandparents wedding in 1905 from Crider & Bro.

    ReplyDelete