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".

Stratemeyer Advertising Pamphlet from LL&S

Today I wanted to present a great advertising pamphlet from Lothrop, Lee and Shepard.

In my experience pamphlets which advertise juvenile series books are quite uncommon. Clearly a one page or an accordion-like ad is much easier and certainly much cheaper to produce. This 64 page pamphlet is a vehicle for promoting Edward Stratemeyer's juvenile books.



Not only are there excerpts from some of Stratemeyer's books here but there are also numerous ads with book pictures from his various series.


The series noted are:
Dave Porter Series-Volumes 1-3
Pan-American Series
Old Glory Series
Soldiers of Fortune Series
Colonial Series
American Boys' Biographical Series
The Stratemeyer Popular Series (12 volumes)

Excerpts are presented from:
Dave Porter at Oak Hall (Dave Porter Series)
Defending His Flag
Lost on the Orinoco (Pan American Series)
Under Dewey at Manila (Old Glory Series)
Under the Mikado's Flag (Soldier of Fortune Series)
With Washington in the West (Colonial Series)

Also included in this pamphlet are numerous illustrations from the books themselves.

I believe this pamphlet dates from 1907. Both Dave Porter's Return to School and Defending His Flag were published in that year. There are no later books noted.

All Aboard Series by Edward Rand-Part 1

This is the D. Lothrop 1882 edition


One of my favorite 19th century series is the All Aboard Series by Edward A. Rand.
Uncle Nat takes his two nephews Ralph and Rick on adventures to the far East and all across the United States. A two book travelogue series, what interests me about the books in addition to the stories is the publishing history. Starting with D. Lothrop and Company and ending with M.A. Donohue, this series was printed by a number of known and very unknown publishers. That is the very unusual feature of this series. I have found that nine publishers printed this series. But this might not be all of them.

I have arbitrarily divided the publishers into three groups. The first being Lothrop, the original publisher and Fairbanks, Palmer , the later copyright holder. The second group is the various subscription publishing houses. The last being the Donohue Publishing House family.

1. All Aboard for Sunrise Lands 1881
2. All Aboard for Lakes and Mountains 1883




Here are the two similar covers from Lothrop









The first company to do these books was D. Lothrop and Company in 1881 and in 1883. In 1882 after Lothrop published "Sunrise Lands" in cloth and illuminated board covers, the copyright for the first book was taken over by Fairbanks, Palmer and Company. My Lothrop books say second edition and the Fairbank's books say "fifteenth thousand" indicating a good Lothrop sales number. In 1885 Fairbanks, Palmer got the "Lakes and Mountains" copyright.

Lothrop we have discussed but who or what was Fairbanks, Palmer.

L.T. Palmer established his publishing business in Chicago in 1873 after gaining experience as a salesman for E. B. Treat and Company, a New York publishing house. This company's books were mainly sold as subscription books. In 1878 he formed a partnership with John Fairbanks. Fairbanks had previously been employed by the American Tract Society as its Western manager. The new company was Fairbanks and Palmer.


The earlier house of L(oomis) T. Palmer published such works as The True Path, Annals of the Great Strikes of the United States as well as a number of other long since forgotten books. Fairbanks, Palmer and Company was also a subscription house. Early on it published blank business forms. Thereafter it published these Rand books. Another juvenile series it did was a four volume set , The Tiny Library, by Miss Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. Books on orators, histories , and farming as well as a number of biographies were also in its list.

This is the 1883 Fairbanks, Palmer edition



In 1888 the company was insolvent. Apparently Fairbanks just left New York City without anyone in charge of the company. The financial woes were not new to this company. In 1884 the publishing house was temporarily closed because of the actions of creditors. Apparently a new company was formed at that time with the creditors taking stock which clearly was valueless by 1888.

Today I am showing pictures of the Lothrop and Fairbanks, Palmer books. There are a couple things of note. First is that the cloth covers are the same. Thus, it is clear that there was a relationship between the two publishers. An interesting note about the Lothrop board cover is the obvious similarity between it and the cover used for the Bodley Family book. (Another travelogue series). Even the end paper illustration was clearly done by the same artist. I guess Lothrop figured it could save a few dollars.



Lothrop published the the first book in 1881 and 1882. It published the Lakes and Mountains in 1883.
Fairbanks, Palmer published the first book in 1882-1885 and the second book in 1885.

The other publishers of this series will be discussed later


1885 Fairbanks Palmer edition

Lothrop Trade Card -- Magazines

Here is a trade card from D. Lothrop and Company. Lothrop advertised its
five magazines with this card. As you can see , each magazine is designed for a different group of readers. From older juveniles to babies, Lothrop has it covered.


The magazines for older children were great vehicles for Lothrop to showcase some of their authors especially Pansy.

Shown below is a copy of Babyland which was the magazine designed for the youngest readers.







The copy here is from February, 1890. At 5 cents it clearly was reasonably priced (even for 1890 dollars).

Of great interest to me are the advertisements. In a 2009 reader like this the ads would be for baby food, toys and other items for toddlers




















In this magazine however this is clearly not the case.
Here is a representative page of ads. Hospital remedies, Dr. Schenk's Pulmonic Syrup and others would not seem to be verey exciting for children. Other ads not shown for an Autoharp , hair curlers and engines are also not for kids. This is a curious disconnect that is hard to explain.

Daniel Lothrop and and His Publishing House-Part 1

Dating 19th century books can be tricky at times. There are plenty of simple guidelines however to make it a bit easier. Previously it has been noted that Lee and Shepard and the D. Lothrop Publishing Company became Lothrop Lee and Shepard in 1905.

Here is an introduction into Daniel Lothrop's Publishing House. Tomorrow I will give you some dating parameters for Lothrop books.

Lothrop opened his book store and publishing house at 38 and 40 Cornhill in Boston in 1868. His first book was Andy Lutrell which was a big seller and made it easier for him to reach out to other authors. His book list over the life of his house consisted of a great variety of material but children's/juvenile books were most prominent. In fact, there is no other late 19th century publisher who came close to printing as many juvenile series as Lothrop did.


In the early 1870's he offered large financial incentives ($1000/$500) for manuscripts which eventually found their way into his $1000/$500 Series. He was known as being willing to spend for quality work. Lothrop House big sellers were the Pansy books, Miss Yonge's Histories, and various "art gift books". His house published several magazines for children starting in the mid 1870's including Pansy, Babyland and Wide Awake.

By 1875 because he had outgrown his Cornhill shop he moved to larger quarters on Franklin and Hawley Streets.


Here are pictures of the exterior and interior of the Franklin and Hawley Streets location.