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 ?
P - PUBLISHERS page 1
On to Page 2
Pacific Coast Steamship Co. 1879-1916
San Francisco, CA
After years of competitive fighting the Pacific Coast Steamship Company emerged as the largest steamship line serving ports from California to Alaska. They published a great number of postcards depicting the many ports and views along their routes and of their steamers. Most of their cards were printed and hand colored by the Albertype Company.
Pacific Mail Steamship Co. 1848-1925
New York, NY
Founded to provide passage and deliver mail from New York across the Panama Isthmus, the company greatly expanded after 1849 when gold was discovered in California. By 1867 they began to establish regular routes to Asia. They published many chromolithographic postcards that held images of their fleet and views from the Far East. They were purchased by the Robert Dollar & Company in 1925.
Pacific Novelty Co. (1908-1960’s)
San Francisco, CA
A major publisher and printer of view-cards depicting California in tinted halftone line block. They produced cards in different styles, most of which were printed in Germany. They eventually sold off their own printing department to Herman Vogel who renamed it Quadricolor Press. Pacific Novelty went on to produce photochromes that were manufactured in the United States.
Palisades Interstate Park Commission (1918-1922)
New York, NY
Published view-cards depicting scenes from the State Parks of New York and New Jersey along the Hudson River that they administered. Theses postcards were printed through the Albertype Company and the American News Company.
Pallis & Cotzias (1900-1906)
Athens, Greece
A publisher of local view-cards, mostly historic ruins, in monochrome, black & white, and hand colored collotype. Titles were often printed in both Greek and English to appeal to tourists.
Frank Palmer (1906-1920)
Spokane, WA
A photographer of Washington State views. Went on to produce real photo postcards.
A. Papeghin (1900-1931)
Paris and Tours, France
A publisher of black and white and monochrome collotype postcards that largely depicted local views of amusement areas and sporting events including the Olympics. Most of the subjects found on their cards were centered around Paris. They published a photo book of Paris in 1919.
Harold A. Parker 1900-1930
Pasadena, CA
A commercial photographer who opened a photo studio in Pasadena in 1904. He captured parades, missions, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and many views of southern California and the Southwest. Much of his early work revolved around creating hand colored lantern slides and autochomes. Later he began publishing his images as hand colored printed postcards, many manufactured by the Albertype Company. His wife Marjorie took over the studio when he died but eventually sold it to the Dickson & Thurber Studio. After passing though a number of hands most of his negatives could not find a home and were discarded in a landfill.
Pastime Novelty Co. (1914)
1334 Broadway, New York, NY
A publisher of prints, novelties, and postcards. Noted for their attention grabbing items such as nudes and the risqué including the controversial images of Kaloma and September Morn.
Michael Patras (1932-1940)
21 rue du Chercho-midi, Paris, France
A photographer of Parisian scenes who published many of his images as postcards. These cards in deep color heliotype were printed in France.
Patton Brothers & Cooke 1893-1934
340 State Street, Salem, OR
A bookstore and stationary run by Edwin Cooke Patton and his brother Hal. Besides his work as a magician and manager of the town’s opera house, Edwin was also a photographer who created real photo postcards under The Patton Post Card Company name. As demand for postcards grew, the brothers opened the Post Card Studio in 1911, which became the largest card shop in the Northwest. They also published many printed view-cards of northwest Oregon and the Pacific coast. The postcard shop was turned over to Everett Lavallour in 1914, and Edwin’s negatives were sold to the photographer Charles Wesley Andrews following World War One. Edwin died in 1929 but his brother Hal ran the bookstore until his death in 1934.
Frank Patterson 1926-1942
Medford, OR
A photographer who published real photo postcards of Oregon and California. Patterson began working in photography in 1915 by producing stereoview cards. He also worked for Bear Photo in San Francisco between 1946 and 1959.
R.S. Patterson (1885-1908)
241 4th Avenue, Nashville, TN
This photographer made many cabinet cards before producing real photo souvenir postcards depicting views of Nashville.
P-C (1920’s)
Paris, France
A publisher of real photo postcards depicting women, nudes, and views, in addition to their many holiday cards. They are probably best known for the view-cards from the colonies of the French Empire. Their glossy photos were made in a high contrast that left very little grey tone behind. They were then overpainted with a pallet of five transparent colors in a flat style. Only their skies tended to have some gradations. The final effect is very bold and striking.
Paynter Brothers (1910)
San Jose, Costa Rica
These photographers published postcards of their work depicting local scenes and ethnic types in hand colored colotype. Their simple RGB pallet gave then distinct look, which is enhanced by their glossy finish.
Peite & Toepfer (1890-1907)
Dresden, Saxony
A publisher of black & white view-cards and color Gruss aus. While their Gruss aus cards were printed in color lithography they had a more limited pallet compared to similar chromolithographed cards of the day. They often made up for this limitation with freer flowing graphics.
Penobscot Studios (1937-1940)
Stonington, ME
Published real photo postcards of the Hancock County region in Maine. These cards tend to have large borders.
W.B. Perkins (1908-1920)
Lead, SD
A photographer that had been shooting pictures of the Black Hills of South Dakota since the turn of the 20th century. He eventually became a local importer and jobber for postcards in this region. Perkins published many of his own photos as postcards in tinted halftones that were printed both in Germany and in the United States.
Perlenfein Brothers (1908-1909)
Jersey City, NJ
Publishers of black & white view-cards of local scenes that were printed in Germany.
Louis Pernitzsch (1862-1926)
Leipzig, Saxony
A fine publisher of illustrated books and eventually postcards in heliogravure and tricolor line block.
Perry Pictures 1897-
Malden, MA
A publisher of postcards and visual aids, including the Perry Magazine, to enhance the education of children. This business was founded by teachers Eugene Ashton and Ella Perry. They met in Provincetown and produced a large set of cards depicting this town. These cards were usually printed in halftone lithographic monotones on strongly dyed papers.
Hermann A. Peters (1910-1935)
Bonn, Germany
A publisher and large distributor of lithographic prints and artist signed postcards of great variety. Many of these cards were printed by B.G. Teubner.
Petley Studios, Inc. 1946-1984
Tucson, AZ
Photographer Robert Teeple Petley began his publishing career when he issued twelve black & white comic cards in 1946. He went on to become the largest publisher of photochrome postcards depicting Southwest views and roadside Americana. Some artist signed cards depicting Western themes were also produced. Most of his postcards seem to have been printed by Dexter Press. This firm was sold to Bruce Finchum in 1984.
PFB (See Paul Finkenrath)
Philadelphia Post Card Co. (1901-1913)
Philadelphia, PA
A publisher of regional view-cards and famous actors.
Philco Publishing Co. 1906-1934
1-6 Holborn Place, London, England
A publisher of many different types of artist signed cards and photo based view-cards as collotypes and photogravures. They are noted for three large sets representing Faith, Hope, and Charity. Most of these cards were printed in Germany but a set or real photo birthday greeting cards were manufactured in Italy.
Philipp & Kramer (1894-1918)
Vienna, Austria
This firm began printing high quality chromolithographic postcards in 1897. They produced many exposition and artist signed cards for the Siebener Club, Wiener Werkstatte, and for other notables such as Kirchner.
Photo & Art Postal Card Co. (1905-1933)
New York, NY
A publisher of view-cards depicting the mid-Atlantic region with a predominance of scenes from Greater New York and Long Island. Their early cards were printed in tinted halftones and their later cards as black & white collotypes.
Photo Belge (1914-1925)
Brussels, Belgium
Published artist signed postcards. They produced a large number of black & white cards illustrating battle scenes from the First World War.
Photo Brom (1907)
Vienna, Austria
A publisher of postcards of women and view-cards depicting scenes within the Austrian Empire and neighboring countries. They also produced real photo and printed cards in both sepia and tinted collotype. A different Photobrom company in Brussels, Belgium published photochrome postcards in the 1950’s.
Photochrom Co. Ltd. 1896-
London and Turnbridge Wells, England
This firm originally produced Christmas cards and became a major publisher and printer of tourist albums, guide books, and postcards that mostly captured worldwide views as real photos or were printed in black & white, monochrome, and color. They also published many advertising, comic, silhouette, novelty, panoramic, and notable artist signed cards in named series as well. The number of titles Photochrom produced may exceed 40,000.
In 1896 they took over Fussli’s London office established three years earlier and began publishing similar photo-chromolithograpgic postcards after securing the exclusive English license for the Swiss photochrom process. This technique was used to produce a great number of view-cards of both England and Europe. While they captured the same fine details as the Swiss prints their pallet was much softer and reduced.
Apart from their better known photochroms they produced their Celesque series of view-cards printed in tricolor.
One of the largest unnamed series they produced was of view-cards printed in brown rotogravue. Many of these cards were simply hand colored with a dominant red and blue, which gives these cards a distint look. They are similar to cards produced in their Photogravure and Velvet Finish Series.
Night Series - Line block haftone over a blue tint depicting London.
Carbofoto Series - Black & white real photos cards.
Sepiatone Series - Sepia real photo cards.
Grano Series - View-cards printed in black & white.
Exclusive Photo-Color Series - View-cards printed in color.
Duotype Process Series - View-cards printed in two tones.
Photochrome Process Co. 1935-1940
Philadelphia, PA
This company was established by some of the former employees of the Detroit Publishing Company. It was an attempt to revive the printing of postcards through the Phostint Process after Detroit went out of business but they were unsuccessful in capturing the same rich look of the originals. Many now refer to the finish of these soft dull cards as frosted to distinguish them from the same images that were previously printed by Detroit.
Photo Color Graph Co. (1908)
New York, NY
A publisher of a variety postcards subjects in chromolithography though best known for their images of flowers.
Photo-Electrotype Engraving Co. (1880’s-1915)
New York, NY
Produced printing plates for the reproduction of black & white images in halftone. They were an early publisher of postcards depicting scenes of New York. The open halftone line block and crude tinting that they used yielded postcards of poor quality.
Photogelatine Engraving Co., Ltd. (1910-1953)
Toronto, ON Canada
A major publisher and printer of Canadian view-cards. These cards were made as black & white, monochrome, and tinted collotypes.
(P continues on next page)
