A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ?
D - PUBLISHERS
London Daily Mail 1896-
London, England
This broadsheet was London’s first daily paper. The tabloid started publishing postcards of newsworthy events and comics at least as early as 1904, but they are best known for the cards they printed during the First World War. They were granted the official right to publish war images from the British Press Bureau though a biding process and promises to donate half the profits to war charities. These sepia, and color lithographic cards were issued in 22 sets of eight cards each, with many of the colored images later being reprinted in sepia or black & white. Millions of these cards were printed and they initially sold very well. After the paper began a critical campaign against Lord Kitchener, sales fell dramatically as the public generally viewed him as a war hero. Because of the paper’s record of strong support for Hitler and Mussolini it became impractical for them to print similar postcards during the Second World War. Today the paper is still sometimes refered to as the Daily Heil.
Danziger & Berman (1909-1920)
New Haven, CT
Published view-cards of southern New England and New York State. Some high quality cards were printed in Germany, but most of their halftone lithographic cards that were printed in United States were crudely colored.
Davidson Brothers (1901-1911)
London, England and New York, NY
A publisher of continuous toned lithographic and tinted real photo postcards. Produced the comic postcards for Tom Browne, who may have had a commercial interest in the company. They also published may other comics, holiday cards, moonlight scenes, art reproductions, and stage portraits. Some of their real photo postcards on bromide paper were manufactured in the same format as the Rotograph Company’s O series.
A.M. Davis & Co. 1907-1916
Boston, MA and Finsbury Square, London, England
Publisher and printer of holiday and greeting postcards, many of them with mottos. Many military themes were covered during the First World War. They also produced a number of artist signed cards, many with children’s themes issued in the Timeless Series. Beryl Hay and Louis Wain both created illustrated sets for this series. Purchased by Rust Craft Publishers.
Delittle, Fenwick & Co. (1901-1914)
Railway Street, York, England
Printers and publishers of a variety of items including a newspaper and postcards under the trade name Defco. They are best known for their many view-cards, comics, and political cartoons. They also contracted printing work for many other publishers.
ETW Dennis & Sons, Ltd. 1901-
Scarborough and London, England
A publisher of a variety of lithographic postcard types in series. Their Dainty Series presented artist signed views printed in halftone. Another series were views in black & white but with a blue sky. Among the many types of novelty cards they published was a risque hold to light card the of the 1950’s known as Shadowgraphs. Their early cards were not numbered.
The Dennison News Co. (1905-1909)
Nevada
A distributor of printed material and a publisher of postcards depicting views and native Americans. Many of their view-cards depict out of the way places and capture a strong feeling for the West despite their ordinary character. These cards were printed in halftone lithography, have white borders, and were numbered.
The Detroit Publishing Co. 1880’s-1936
Detroit, MI
Originally a printer of religious books and calendars, the Detroit Photographic Company Ltd. shifted production in 1897 when owners William A. Livingstone and Edwin H. Husher saw the potential in postcards. After negotiations with Orell Fussli, Detroit became the sole American company to license the Swiss photochrom process, which they would eventually register in 1907 under the name Phostint. In addition they would also distributed Swiss made prints for Fussli in America. When the well known Western photographer William Henry Jackson joined the company as a partner, he added his thousands of negatives to Livingstone’s collection of Great Lakes imagery and Husher’s photos of California. All this provided a strong foundation to start publishing postcards. Jackson traveled around the United States taking many additional pictures until 1903 when he took over the management of Detroit’s factory. By 1904 as postcards sales increased to 7 million per year they changed their name to the Detroit Publishing Company. They produced postcards on a great variety of subjects but they are best known for their view-cards. The quality of their cards are considered some of the finest produced in America. They also printed many contract cards whose numbers increased as ordinary sales began to fall. Many of their views found on postcards were also produced as larger sized prints. Detroit went into receivership in 1924 but printed contract cards until 1932. The look of these cards changed over the years as the phostint technique was secretly perfected. All their cards were printed in Detroit except for a rare few from Austria and Switzerland.
The Detroit Publishing Company is particularly known for creating many types of variations during reprinting. Some cards with low identification numbers may look newer than those with higher numbers because they were reprinted in a more modern format years later without changing their number.
Some of the images used by Detroit in their early years can be found on cards of other publishers, most notably the private mailing cards of Edward H. Mitchell. While there are no definitive answers to be had, it is known that detroit sold photographs to many different companies before they started printing postcards, and Detroit also was known to print cards for other publishers.
1898 Numbered F1 to F92 under Detroit Photochrom Company.
1899 Numbered G1 to G35
1899-1900 Numbered 1 to 522 under Detroit Photographic Company. Full images began to replace vignettes.
1901 Numbered 5000 to 5999 with many reprints of early images.
1902 Numbered 6000 to 6999. While best known for their American views they also produced some foreign scenes most notably an untypical series on Japan.
1903-1904 Numbered 7000 to 7999
1904-1905 Numbered 8000 to 8999 under Detroit Publishing Company. After card #8065 all cards were enlarged to standard size.
1905-1906 Numbered 9000 to 9999
1905-1907 Numbered 60000 to 60557 These were all art reproductions.
1906-1907 Numbered 10000 to 10999 Began using the term Phostint Card.
1907 Numbered 14000 to 14751 These cards were of a variety of subjects including art cards, cartoons, and portraits. Those numbered 14800 to 14999 were regular view-cards.
1907-1908 Numbered 11000 to 11999
1908-1909 Numbered 12000 to 12999
1909-1910 Numbered 13000 to 13999
1911-1913 Numbered 70000 to 70999
1913-1918 Numbered 71000 to 71999 Started adding printing the date to the back dividing line in 1915.
1918-1932 Numbered 72000 to 72275
Series 50000 to 59065 were of images made both as postcards and lithographic prints.
Series 79000 to 79999 were view-cards printed for other publishers begun in 1910.
Series 80000 to 80999 were view-cards printed for other publishers.
Series 81000 to 81999 were view-cards printed for other publishers.
Series 82000 to 82149 were view-cards printed for other publishers.
Series H1199 to H4160 were contract cards printed from 1901-1932 for Fred Harvey.
Some Detroit cards were printed in Switzerland. The titles on these were in bright red instead of the usual grey lettering and the have an overall reddish color cast. Swiss cards seem to be confined to the 5000 and 6000 series but the subjects chosen seen to follow no pattern.
Other small series included art cards, photo-type cards, real photo art reproductions, mottoes, long panoramic cards, and boxed sets known as Little Phostint Journeys. There were many additional cards printed without any numbers for private contracts.
Thomas Dexter Press 1934-1980
West Nyack, NY
Printer of a wide variety of postcards subjects as linens and photochromes. Thomas A. Dexter was the inventor of gang printing. The Company merged with MWM Color Press in 1980 to become MWM Dexter, and they moved to Aurora, MO.
While all the photochromes printed by Dexter boor the words Genuine Natural Color they went through a variety of phases. Their early photochromes went under the name Dextone and tended to be flat and somewhat dull in appearance. As years went by their optical blending techniques improved producing richer and more varied colors.
Moorli Dhur & Sons (1899-)
Amala Cantonment, India
A major Indian owned publishing house that produced many postcards of views and types from India and from what is now Pakistan. These cards were made in continuous tone lithography and as black & white collotypes printed in both Germany and Great Britain.
Olga Diakow & Co. (1918-1921)
Berlin, Germany
A publisher of books and postcards. These cards were artist signed and printed in lithographic halftones.
Diamond News Co. (1900-1906)
Havana, Cuba
A publisher and distributor of postcard views depicting Cuba and other travel related material. Since their cards were printed in English rather than Spanish they were probably geared toward the American forces occupying Cuba at that time. Their cards were printed to comply with American Post Office Department regulations as seen in their private mailling cards.
H. A. Dickerman & Son (1907-1936)
Taunton, MA
An important publisher of New England view-cards, mostly in black & white or hand colored. They nearly dominated the Cape Cod postcard market.
Dicks & Co. Ltd. (1892-)
St. John, Newfoundland
They began their operations as bookbinders and stationers but their business was destroyed by a fire that swept through St. John in 1892. After rebuilding they began publishing books and postcards depicting local views. These cards were printed in Belgium with a simple RGB pallet but in high quality continuous tone lithography.
Dietrich & Cie (1898-1910)
Brussels, Belgium
A publisher of books, posters, and artist signed postcards.
Leon Louis Dolice 1920-1960
New York, NY
After migrating form Vienna to New York’s Greenwich Village, Dolice produced a large number of etchings depicting scenes around the City. These etchings were later published by Dolice as black & white postcards in halftone lithography.
Donaldson Brothers 1885-1892
Five Points, NY
Founded by George W. Donaldson, this Company grew into a major printing firm. They produced a wide variety of chromolithographic material including many trade and advertising cards. Consolidated into the American Lithographic Co. in 1892, with Donaldson becoming the new Vice President.
Reuben H. Donnelley Corp. 1916 -
Chicago, IL
A printer and publisher of various items but most notably of phone books. This company formed from the dissolution of the Chicago Directory Company, a subsidiary of the worlds largest publisher, R.R. Donnelley & Sons. In 1933 and 1934 they published the official postcards to Chicago’s A Century of Progress in black & white and in color.
Doubleday-Foster Photo Co., Inc. (D.F.P.Co., Inc.) 1910-1955
Chicago, IL
Published and Distributed postcards made from the photographs of Ralph Russell Doubleday. Doubleday began his career creating stereo-views for Underwood & Underwood. After he began taking pictures of rodeos, their great popularity allowed him to start his own company selling postcards. His willingness to take great risks provided him with the first known action photo of a rider thrown into the air. Other images of performers, towns, and amusements were also captured on his cards. He produced over 30 million postcards as real photos, and printed additional images through Curt Teich, earning him the name Rodeo Postcard King. Woolworth sold many of his cards through their Five & Dimes. In later years Doubleday dropped Foster and began distributing cards by himself under his own name. He had offices in many towns such as Council Bluffs, IW. The many tall tales that surrounded his life make it difficult today to form an accurate history of his work.
Douglas Post Card & Machine Co. (1900-1908)
535 Arch, Philadelphia, PA
A publisher of lithographic arcade cards on heavy card stock but with postcard backs. Most of their subjects were either risqu&ecute; or comic.
H. & W.B. Drew Co. 1855-
Jacksonville, FL
Founded by Columbus Drew as a stationary and printing company. They published many postcards in addition to producing many books. Some of these cards were contracted out to Curt Teich.
Adolphe Duperly & Sons 1840-1955
Kingston, Jamaica
Adolphe Duperly was trained as an engraver and lithographer but shifted his interest to photography soon after it was introduced to the public. This pioneer produced many early daguerreotypes. His sons Henri Louis and Oscar also became photographers capturing many of Jamaica’s first views in photos. The company became the first Kodak dealer in the region as they expanded their photo work beyond their island. Oscar moved to Columbia in 1915 adding many scenes of the Panama Canal to their inventory. Outside of producing photo books they published many hand colored postcards that they had printed in Germany.
