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 ?
H - PUBLISHERS
W. de Haan (1905-)
Utrecht, Holland
An important publisher of fine illustrated books and postcards. They produced a variety of lithographic cards but are best known for their artist signed pieces, especially by Cassiers and Rie Cramer.
Wolff Hagelburg (1866-1934)
New York, NY and Berlin, Germany
An early publisher and printer of lithographic materials including fine art books, greeting cards, and postcards. Noted for their many intricate die cut designs. They were one of the first printers to manufacture hold to light cards.
The H. Hagemeister Co. (1907-1916)
New York, NY
Published monotone and black & white collotypes and many hand colored view-cards with a simple but bold pallet. While most of their postcards depict scenes of greater of New York City some cards were made of regional and foreign views as well. All their cards are consecutively numbered. They were printed in Germany.
Albert Hahn (1901-1919)
229 Broadway, New York, NY
Published lithographic and hand colored view-cards of New York, especially of the Catskill Mountains. Their cards were printed in Germany.
George P. Hall & Son 1876-1914
212 Broadway, New York, NY
Photographers of marine scenes and New York City. They published many of their photographs as color and black & white lithographic postcards.
Ross Hall 1931-1990
Sandpoint, ID
The scenic photographer Ross Alvin Hall left Texas in 1931 to assist in running the Himes Studio in Idaho. Hall purchased the Himes Studio in 1938 where he began selling his own real photo postcards. Within ten years 38 million cards had been sold.
Hall Brothers 1911-
Kansas City, MO
After some success in selling packets of postcards in 1910 Joyce Clyde Hall set ub his own distribution business the following year. By 1912 his brother Rollie jouned him and they began printing greeting cards as they saw the postcard market failing. All their inventory was lost to a fire in 1915 but they recovered and continued publishing. In 1917 they invented gift wrapping and they became the first company to advertise cards on a national basis. These inovations helped them capture half of the greeting card market. They changed the Company name to Hallmark in 1928. Even though their focus was on folded greetings they continued to publish sets of souvenir cards.
Hamburg Amerika Linie 1847-1970
Hamburg, Germany
Originally a shipping line between Hamburg and Hoboken, New Jersey. Soon afterwards they established passenger service to Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans and other distant ports including Canada. Their docks in Hoboken became a major entrant point for both immigrants and German printed postcards. In 1900 this facility suffered a disastrous fire that was captured by many local photographers who turned these images into postcards. The Hamburg Line published many fine chromolithographic cards themselves over the years depicting scenes aboard their ships but mostly of the ships themselves. At the beginning of World War One they owned 149 vessels but most ended up being confiscated by belligerent powers. In 1920 they became part of the American Ship and Commerce Line, then merged with Norddeutschar Lloyd to become Hapag-Lloyd.
Harry H. Hamm (1907-1923)
Erie, PA
Publisher of view-cards of the Great Lakes region, especially around Ohio.
V. O. Hammon Publishing Co. 1900-1923
215 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, IL and Minneapolis, MN
A major publisher of halftone lithographic view-cards of the Great Lakes region. They also published novelty cards. Most of their cards tend to have a distinct look as they were printed in crisp RGB colors with small red block lettering.
Kyoto Hanga-in 1935-1988
Kyoto, Japan
A publisher of woodblock prints re-cut from earlier ukiyo-e (floating world) images. These prints were often sold in portfolios and when they were reproduced as postcards they were also often sold in sets.
They also published postcards by contemporary Japanese artists such as the noted set from the early 1950’s depicting the American Occupation.
Byron Harmon late 1890’s-1942
Banff, AB Canada
Harmon arrived in Alberta in 1903 as an itinerant photographer after leaving his portrait studio in Tacoma, Washington. By 1906 He had become a founding member and official photographer of the Alpine Club of Canada. He took over 6,400 photographs while exploring the Canadian Rockies and the Selkirks. In 1907 Harmon began turning many of these photographs into real photo postcards, which became his principal life’s work. In 1924 he traveled into the Rockies with the photographer Lewis R. Freeman. Some of the real photo postcards produced under Harmon’s name from this trip may actually be the work of Freeman that he published for him. After this trip Harmon mostly produced scenes alongside railway lines. He also distributed printed color postcards made from his photos that were manufactured in the United States.
William James Harris 1886-1940
St. Augustine, FL
Harris, the Post Card Man, began selling card photos from his parent’s home in Pennsylvania in 1886. From there he became an itinerant photographer capturing many scenes in the mid-Atlantic region including New York. He was especially known for his bold sunsets. His name became well known after he took the first photo of a ferris wheel at the Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, making his work more marketable. In 1898 he made his first visit to the wealthy resort of Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey where he set up a floating studio called the Harris Photo Float. Although the studio sank in 1903 destroying most of his work, he continued to spend his summers there producing many real photo postcards. In the same year that he came to Lake Hopatcong, he wintered in St. Augustine setting up the Acme View Company to market his Florida photos. Harris had been making real photo cards since 1901 and by 1905 he was beginning to hand color them. Although he produced local town views, many of his images were of generic scenery filled with the stuffed egret or alligator he carried with him. After joining the St. Augustine Historical Society he made many dubious historic claims on places he photographed to better increase his sales. He divided his year between Florida and New Jersey producing real photo postcards of both until 1915 when he gave up the postcard format.
Hartford News Co. (1910-)
Hartford, CT
A local publisher and distributor of postcards for the American News Company.
Emil Hartmann (1901-1939)
Mannheim, Germany
A publisher of real photo, black & white, and color view-cards. Some of their cards seem to have been printed in color with additional hand coloring.
Frederick Hartmann 1902-1909
45 Farringdon Street, London, England
A publisher of postcards in fine lithographic halftones. While most of his cards covered views from all over Great Britain, he also produced cards on various other subjects many of which were artist signed. In addition to having his cards printed in Saxony, he imported many glamour cards from the Continent as well. He was the British distributor of postcards for Trenkler & Company. Hartmann was a strong advocate of the divided back postcard and was instrumental to its establishment in England. Hartman may have issued the world’s first divided back card.
Hart Schaffner & Marx 1887-1983
Chicago, IL
This men’s clothing store was founded by brothers Harry and Max Hart as Harry Hart & Bros. in 1872. After Marcus Marx joined in 1879 and Joseph Schaffner in 1887 the name was changed to Hart Schaffner & Marx. Highly successful this business expanded to open many branches throughout the Country. They used postcards extensively to promote their products but not just as simple advertising cards. The published a number of artist signed view-cards with advertising placed on their backs. In 1883 they were bought out by a competitor and became the Hartmarx Corp. but they still use postcards to promote their line.
Fred Harvey Trading Co. 1897-1968
Kansas City, MO
In 1878 Fred Harvey was the first to established a chain of restaurants then hotels across the Southwest that provided quality service. Much was done to market the region including publishing large series of postcards depicting Native Americans and local scenery. In 1897 Harvey took over the news stands for the A.T.&S.F. Railroad and began distributing postcards. The Santa Fe Railroad also did a great deal to publicize its Route to the Grand Canyon. A large amount of postcards were produced depicting the canyon and the Railroad’s hotel interests within the National Park. Fred Harvey himself provided some of the images for these cards until his death in 1901. Between 1901 and 1932 the Company contracted all their cards with the Detroit Publishing Company. These cards have an H prefix before their identification number, but in addition Detroit published many of Harvey’s images on their own. After Detroit closed, many of Harvey’s cards were contracted out to Curt Teich among others.
Hauser & Menet (1885-)
Madrid, Spain
These photographers are often accredited of producing the first picture postcards in Spain. During the beginning of the 20th century many of their photographic images were reproduced as collotype view-cards, some of which were hand colored. Postcard booklets of art reproductions were also made. They also published many books illustrated with their photos.
J. E. Haynes Photo Co. 1894-1967
St. Paul, MN
Frank J. Haynes started taking photographs in 1876 for the Northern Pacific Railroad. By 1894 he had opened the Haynes Photo Company at Yellowstone National Park and in 1900 he started publishing stereo-views and postcards in a variety of manner. Haynes operated the Park’s coach services for a number of years, which often became a subject of his cards. He is noted for a large set of monotone oval multi-view cards depicting various scenes at Yellowstone Park. The family business was turned over to his son Jack in 1916 who continued to publish many more cards. Five years after Jack’s death in 1967, Isabel Haynes sold the business to the Hamilton Stores, Inc. (1915-2002).
William Randolph Hearst 1903-1907
San Francisco, CA, New York, NY, Boston, MA, Chicago, IL
Published a topical series of free cut-out postcards as color supplements included in the papers of his newspaper chain; the New York American & Journal, the American Journal Examiner, the Boston Sunday American, the Chicago American, and the San Francisco Examiner. The earliest of these cards were printed in chromolithography but about 1904 they changed to cheaper quality halftones. These cards were printed on paper, not card stock. Some early cards were also printed with German text.
Hebensperger & Co. (1900-1916)
Riga, Latvia
A printer and publisher of view-cards depicting scenes of Latvia and Russia. These lithographic cards were printed in black & white and in color. Many titles are bilingual. They also produced a great number of cabinet cards.
Joseph Heim (1890’s)
Vienna, Austria
A publisher of chromolithographs. Produced a set of artist signed view-cards by Joseph Hoffmann in 1898 depicting scenes of India.
H.V. Henderson (1920-1961)
West Bathurst, NB, Canada
A photographer who captured many views of eastern Canada. He is especially noted for his scenes of the Gaspe Peninsular in Quebec. These images were turned into real photo postcards, some of which were hand colored, as well as having some images printed in black & white and color gravure. They can be found with and without borders. Many of these cards were distributed through the Canadian National Railway. Henderson also did photo processing work for others and often advertised these services on the back of his cards.
John Hepburn 1870’s-1950’s
Main Street, Flushing, NY
A local publisher of postcards depicting the town of Flushing. They were sold through the Hepburn & James Pharmacy and many were printed through the American News Company. While William T. James, John Hepburn’s partner, is known to have documented Flushing in photographs it is uncertain if these images were used for their postcards.
Heliotype Printing Co. 1872-1908
211 Tremont Street, Boston, MA
A subsidiary of Osgood & Co., formed when Ernest Edward, the inventor of the heliograph, arrived in America from London in 1972. When Osgood & Co. went bankrupt in 1885, Edwards left and started the Photo-Gravure Company in New York. The Heliotype Company continued its printing operations, publishing maps, book illustrations, posters, and black & white view-cards of southern New England. (A different Heliotype Company Ltd. appears in Ottawa, Canada about 1917 to 1920.)
Arno Hermanos (1920’s-1930’s)
La Paz and Cochabamba, Bolivia
A bookseller and stationer who played an important role in publishing photographic views of Bolivia as lithographic postcards.
Hershey Department Store 1914-1977
Hershey, PA
Milton S. Hershey founded the Milton Hershey Carmel Company in Derry Church, Pennsylvania in 1894. By 1906 they were the Hershey Chocolate Company and had developed more than their well known chocolate Kisses, they had created a model community for their employees afterwards known as Hershey. The following year, Hershey Park was established followed by the Hershey Hotel, and the Hershey Department Store in 1914. This store became the major publisher of postcards for all the company’s tourist related endeavors. In 1927 the chocolate manufacturing part of the business was separated from their other activities but the Department Store continued to publish postcards until it closed in 1977.
E.J. Hey & Co., Ltd. (1908-1921)
57-9 Ludgate Hill, London, England
A publisher of postcards under the Ludgate Series name. Produced a number of artist drawn view-cards plus comic and romance cards as well. They also imported a large amount of glamour cards from Germany. Became a Limited Company in 1917.
T.N. Hibben & Co. 1855-1914
Victoria, British Columbia
In 1855 Thomas Napier Hibben, from North Carolina, arrived in Victoria to become the town’s first bookseller and stationer.In 1859 he took on a partner, Robert Carswell to become Hibben & Carswell, but it was short lived as Carswell soon left for Toronto to set up his own business. Hibben became an important local publisher of labels, maps and postcards. Some of his postcards were sold in souvenir books. He also became a distributor for these items from other companies such as the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1914 the company merged to become Diggon-Hibben Ltd.
Siegmund Hildesheimer & Co. (1830-1920)
63 Miller Street, Manchester and 14-16 Silk Street, London England
An old publisher of books that began printing Christmas cards in Manchester in 1876. By 1881 they opened in London and began to produce advertising cards and then postcards on a variety of subjects. Most of their cards were artist drawn views and issued in sets. Some of these had heraldic designs placed on them. They also published comics, art reproductions, real photo portraits, and black & white cards from which a series on horses is notable. Many of their early postcards were printed with a linen texture. They also contracted the printing of postcards with many local publishers and through their office in New York City. The company was reorganized a number of times.
Hildrith (1902-1935)
Longmont, CO
Photographer Frank Hildreth opened a studio in Longmont in 1902 and is brother Carl later joined him. Eventually they opened other Colorado shops in Berthoud, Fort Collins, and Lyons. Together they published many real photo postcards of views, some of which were hand colored. A number of their notably views were taken in Rocky Mountain National Park, There cards were usually titled on the back.
Tomer Jacob Hileman 1911-1945
Kalispell, MT
A photographer of the Montana Rockies. He became an official photographer for the Great Norther Railroad in 1925 where he produced a great number of real photo postcards. Hileman is the photographer most often associated with Glacier National Park.
Otto Hilig 1897-1954
Liberty, NY
A photographer who captured views of the Catskill Mountains and numerous local scenes, many intimate in nature. These images were published in souvenir books and on printed postcards. His early cards were printed in germany in continuous tone lithography. His studio built of river stones is known as The Castle and remains a landmark.
J.P. Hoffman & Son (1908-1948)
Harrisburg, PA
A leading publisher and distributor of view-cards in central Pennsylvania. These cards were produced in a variety of styles and techniques over the years with many printed by Curt Teich.
Heinrich Hoffmann (1919-1945)
Munich, Bavaria
A press photographer who joined the Nazi party in 1920 and illustrated books with his work promoting Nazi ideals. This work brought him into contact with Adolph Hitler in 1922 and they became best of friends. By 1937 Hoffmann had become Hitler’s official photographer. He produced images for books, postage stamps, posters, and postcards. The cards were mostly issued in sets beginning in 1934. Because of his unique position he produced the best visual history of the Nazi Movement. The royalties from his exclusive photos made him a rich man, but after WWII he was sentenced to prison at the Nuremberg Trials for profiteering. Today there are probably more forgeries of Hoffmann real photo cards than any other.
Un-numbered cards - Much of his early work had neither number or letter designations.
Numbered cards - Random images, over 1100 in number.
Series G - Winter Olympics of 1938.
Series H - Hamburg Staatbesuch of 1934.
Series M - Meetings between Hitler and Mussolini. Issued in two dated sets, one for 1938 and another in 1940.
Series O - Hitler’s visit to Austria in 1938 plus images of his birthplace.
Series P - Issued as two sets, the Nuremberg Congress of 1934 and a second set of the Invasion of Poland in 1938.
Series S - Issued as two sets, Hitler’s visit to the Saar, and the invasion of Sudetenland in 1938.
Series HDK - German art work from the Munich Museum.
Hobbing & Co., G.m.b.H. (1906-1920)
Bremen and Berlin, Germany
A publisher of postcards in halftone lithography. They produced a variety of subjects from artist signed cards to ships.
Wilhelm Hoffmann A.G. (1840-1930)
Dresden, Saxony
Began as a manufacturer of lantern slides. They later became an important publisher of posters and postcards.
Eskil Holm (1903-1933)
Stockholm, Sweden
A publisher of a variety of lithographic products from matchboxes to postcards. Produced artist signed cards most notably by Aina Stenberg.
Alfred Holzman Co. (1906-1910)
Chicago, IL
Published and printed a variety of card types. They are well known for their hold to light postcards. The Company published many change of address cards when Chicago renumbered its streets in 1909 and again in 1911.
Honolulu Paper Co. 1918-1964
Honolulu, HI
A manufacturer of paper office products. They published and distributed view-cards of Hawaii. The Boise Cascade Company purchased them in 1964, and they have been known as Hopaco since 1971.
Hooper, Lewis & Co. (1873-1903)
120 & 122 State Street, Boston, MA
Stationers and importers of chromolithographic trade cards, labels, and playing cards. They eventually went on to publish monochromatic view-cards in a fine continuous tone with a glossy finish.
Walter H. Horne Co. 1911-1921
El Paso, TX
A local photographer who took advantage of the troubled times to published hundreds of real photo postcards depicting scenes from the Mexican Revolution, Texas border outposts, and the American Punitive Expedition against Poncho Villa. The scenes he published range from the gruesome to the bland. Horne can be considered the principal photojournalist of this War. These cards were distributed nationally.
Hoursch & Bechstodt (1906-1937)
Cologne, Germany
A publisher of illustrated books, maps, travel guides, and postcards. They are known for their artist drawn scenes of the Rhine in a Romantic manner.
Hudson Day Line (1920-1937)
New York, NY
This steamship line published hand colored postcards and card booklets through the Albertype Company. These cards illustrated their river fleet and the views along the Hudson River on their routes between New York City and Albany. This series is numbered.
C. W. Hughes & Co., Inc. (1915-1944)
Mechanicsville, NY
A publisher of lithographic view-cards depicting scenes of upstate New York, Vermont, and western Massachusetts.
Franz Huld 1900-1914
246 5th Avenue, New York, NY
Published a variety of lithographic card types but mostly view-cards of the Northeast and of Florida. Most of his cards were printed using an open halftone and sometimes hand coloring was added to limited sections of the image. They also produced many novelties, a set on the San Francisco earthquake, and installment card sets for which they are well noted. Huld filed for bankruptcy in 1914 but he probably stopped publishing cards in 1909.
Franz Humar (1901-1908)
Munich, Bavaria
A publisher and printer of fine books and postcards in chromolithography.
E.W. Humphreys (1905-1910)
Woodstown, NJ
A photographer and local merchant who produced postcards from his work to be sold in his store. Most of these cards were hand colored and manufactured in Germany.
The Humphries Co. (1906-1908)
El Paso, TX
A publisher of halftone lithographic postcards depicting scenes of Texas and Mexico. The backs were usually marked both Post Card and Tarjeta Postal.
Conrad Hundt, Buchhandlung (1906-1941)
Germany
This book seller was also a publisher of lithographic postcards. They began by publishing chromolithographic Gruss aus cards followed by halftone view-cards in an RGB pallet and eventually more views in black & white. They also issued a number of military related cards during the First World War.
P.S. Hunt (1880’s-1906)
Valdez, AK
An important early photographer who captured local views. Hunt was known to travel with his camera by dog sled. Many of these photos were published as real photo postcards.
Hunter Photo Co. (1905-1915)
Madison, CT
A publisher of postcards depicting the mid-Connecticut coast. Their early cards were in black & white but they later produced halftone lithographic cards and very fine hand colored views. These cards were made in Germany.
Huntress (1908-1932)
Osterville, MA
Louis Maynard Huntress was a photographer noted for his landscapes of Cape Cod. He tended to capture intimate subjects rather than depict dramatic views, and because these photos were not titled it is difficult to place many of them today. These images were reproduced as real photo postcards and also as printed cards of which many were published by H.A. Dickerman. It is not known whether the Osterville address was just for his studio for Huntress seems to have also had a home in Andover during the same period.
A.G. Hyde & Sons (1889-1914)
361 Broadway, New York, NY
Albert Gallatin Hyde opened his store as a fabric merchant in 1889 about forty years after arriving in New York from Vermont. Eventually the company began publishing free fashion postcards for publicity under the Hydegrade name, the same name given to the fabrics they manufactured. These cards were printed in continuous tone lithography.
