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 ?

S - PUBLISHERS    page 2

Sing Fat & Co.   1906-
San Francisco, CA

A publisher of postcards depicting Chinese life in San Francisco. Their Oriental Bazaar on California Street and Grant Avenue was the first pagoda style building in the city. It was designed to attract visitors that would buy postcards and other tourist related products. The Bazaar itself became the subject of many cards.

Sithens Post Card Co.   (1920-1929)
Atlantic City, NJ

A publisher of halftone lithographic white border view-cards depicting scenes around the popular resort of Atlantic City.

W.L.H. Skeen & Co.   1860-1903
Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka)

Photographers who published illustrated books and postcards. In 1860 the photo studio of S. Slinn & Co. was purchased by the printer William Skeen for his son, William Louis Henry, a London trained photographer. By the late 1860»s additional branches were opened and their name was changed to W.L.H. Skeen & Co. His brother Frederick Albert Edward joined the business in 1878 but left for Burma in 1887 to open his own photo studio with H.W. Watts. At the turn of the century many of the studio’s photographs began to be turned into black & white postcards printed as collotypes. In addition to their views of Ceylon they produced many images of India in the 1890’s. They are best known for their documenting of types, the spice and tea trade, and railroad construction. After his brothers death in 1903 Frederick returned to Colombo to run the shop and changed its name to F. Skeen &amo; Co. Frederick seems to have left or died in 1914 but the studio continued to run for six more years. It is believed that their inventory may have passed to Plat & Co. but this has not been documented.

W.F. Sleight Post-Card Co.   (1906-1907)
155 South 4th Avenue, Mount Vernon, NY

Sleight was a studio photographer that later began publishing view-cards capturing scenes of southern Westchester County and the Bronx. These cards are numbered and printed in black & white halftone lithography.

Alfred Fletcher Smiley   1944-1955
Lake Minniwaska, NY

When Alfred Homans Smiley visited Coxing Pond in the Shawangunk Mountains in 1875 he fell in love with the place and quickly purchased the land around it. By the following year he began building an inn high on the cliffs above the lake he renamed Minniwaska. In 1944 ownership of this property, which had grown into a large resort passed down to his sole remaining grandson Fletcher. While the resort had produced many postcards over the years, most notably by Detroit Publishing, Alfred Fletcher Smilley began publishing lithographic cards in monotones under his own name. In 1955 the Lake Minniwaska resort was sold to its General Manager Kenneth B. Phillips, Sr.

Smiling Cow   (1936-)
Boothbay Harbor and Camden, ME

A group of tourist oriented stores that published black & white view-cards of the mid-Maine coast. Their cards were printed by the Albertype Company.

Albert Smith, Ltd.   (1907-)
Jersey, Channel Islands

A local photographer who turned many of his images into postcards. These cards were printed in France using color gravure with a distinct RGB pallet.

W.H. Smith & Son   (1905-1906)
Newcastle-on-Tyne, England

A publisher of view-cards, railways, novelties, real photos, and a series of woodcuts depicting London. All their cards were issued in series. Some cards have the words Smith’s Circulating Library printed in the stamp box. These cards were manufactured in Great Britain. Some bare the initials JV on the image side indicating they were printed by Valentine’s.

J. Solomon, Inc.    1902-
Bank Street, New London, CT

A publisher of local Connecticut view-cards including some of Fishers Island. Many of these cards were printed for them by Tichnor Brothers in halftone lithography spanning the range between cards with white borders and Linens. Today they are primarily involved in office supplies.

Solomon Brothers, Ltd.    1911-1918
London, England

A large publisher of halftone lithographic postcards. They produced a large series of view-cards under the Sun-Rays Series name. Greeting cards and artist signed cards were also produced, and during the First World War patriotic cards became their staple. In addition they published real photo cards shot in a studio with captions added.

Sonora News Co.    1896-1929
San Cosme, Mexico City, Mexico

The photographer Charles B. Waite had a studio in El Paso, Texas before founding the Sonora News Company in Mexico in 1896. He published many postcards depicting views, types, and actresses of Mexico and sold them alongside souvenirs. While most of his view-cards can be considered traditional, he stirred up controversy by producing images of Indians living in poverty. Waite’s cards were oriented toward American tourists and most of the writing on them is in English. These cards were manufactured in the United States.

Souther-Mears Co.   (1908-1910)
Boston, MA

Published view-cards of Massachusetts. Many of these hand colored cards were distributed through A.M. Simon.

Southern Bargain House   (1910-1918)
Richmond, VA

Published a large number of lithographic view-cards depicting the Richmond area. Many of these postcards focus on historical sites dating back to the American Civil War. Some cards also reproduce colorized versions of vintage newspaper pictures from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated News.

Southern Pacific Co.   1885-1988
San Francisco, CA

Originally established as a land holding company, it grew through a number of mergers into one of America’s largest railroads serving the Southeast and Pacific Coast from points in the mid-West. Like many railroads they published postcards of views along their passenger routes for advertising. By 1984 their assets were being sold off and in 1988 they were bought by Rio Grand Industries, which kept their well known name. After 1988 however their name disappeared when they became part of the Union Pacific Railroad.

South-West News Co.   (1908-)
Kansas City, MO

A publisher and distributor of printed materials including postcards. They were an agent for the American News Company for much of their history.

Southwest Post Card Co.   (1938-1957)
Albuquerque, NM

A distributor of view-cards of the American Southwest and other Western themes.

A.Q. Southwick   (1907-1908)
New York, NY

A publisher of quality holiday, comic, and greeting postcards.

Souvenir Novelty Co.   (1910-1927)
Salt Lake City, UT

A publisher of local souvenir books and postcards in lithography. Many of their cards were printed by Curt Teich.

Souvenir Post Card Co.   1905-1914
268 Canal Street, New York, NY

A major publisher of a variety of postcard types. They used three different printers over the course of their business, which changed the look of their cards. Some of their early cards were printed with the name E. Frey on them who may have been the owner. The company was purchased by Valentine and Sons. and they produced cards in America under the name Valentine-Souvenir Company.

Color cards 1-3099 and 12000-15000.

Green & white 3100-5999 and 15000-up. Many of these cards were reprints of color issues (often with glitter to enhance their dull look).

Black & white 6000-11999 in halftone lithography.

Souvenir Publishing Co.   (1907-1915)
San Francisco, CA

A publisher of books and lithographic postcards.

Souvenir Publishing & Mercantile Co.   (1906-1908)
Denver, CO

A publisher of view-cards depicting scenes in Colorado. These cards were made in halftone lithography with a highly noticeable RGB pallet.

Springfield News Co.   (1902-)
Springfield, MA

A publisher and distributor of local postcards for the American News Company.

Sprouse & Son   (1908-1912)
Tacoma, Washington

Publishers and importers of black & white, monochrome, and color postcards. While most of their cards depicted scenes of Washington and Oregon they produced other types of cards such as exaggerations as well. Many of their cards were imported from Germany.

Gerhard Stalling AG   1851-
Oldenburg, Germany

An large publisher and printer of illustrated books. They are known for their children�s magazine Dideldum and for promoting the work of Nazis such as the architect Albert Speer. They produced a number of lithographic postcards printed in an early form of offset with halftones in a rosette pattern. They have an office in Berlin.

State Art Publishing Agency   (1939)
Moscow, U.S.S.R.

A publisher of art reproductions with many produced as postcards. Their cards seem to have been printed in a higher quality than other lithographic cards produced by the State monopoly IZOGIZ. The titles on these cards were printed in both Russian and English indicating that they were directed toward a foreign audience. They may have been part of an effort to build an alliance with the English speaking world as World War Two was breaking out.

Star Stationary Co.   (1940’s)
Newark, NJ

A publisher of Linen postcards depicting views of New Jersey. They are particularly known for their many scenes of the Jersey shore.

Stedman Brothers, Ltd.   (1908-1915)
Brantford, ON, Canada

A large publisher of halftone lithographic color and black & white view-cards of central Canada and the Great Lakes region. Though photo based these images went under heavy retouching. Many of these images revolve around railroads though cards were also issued on local Indians and of a patriotic nature as the First World War neared. While most of their printed cards were made in Germany they also produced bordered cards on bromide paper that were manufactured in England.

Stehli Freres   1902-1995
Zurich, Switzerland

The Stehli brothers were an important printer of art books and fine prints. They also produced many high quality postcards in continuous tone color lithography. They are especially known for their artist signed cards of views and of animals. The borders on many of their cards are irregular to simulate the deckle of a fine art print. Stehli Freres was purchased by Rosenstiel’s in 1995.

Stengel & Co.   (1898-1917)
Dresden, Saxony

A major publisher and printer of art cards depicting famous European paintings. Their chromolithographs often employed more than twenty litho-stones to achieve subtle colors. These are possibly the finest examples of high quality printing to be found on any postcard. Stengel’s cards were distributed by Misch & Company in Great Britain, and by the Rotograph Company in the United States from whom they took over their production of art cards.

Stengel also published a great number of worldwide view-cards. Some have a similar look to their art cards in that they are artist drawn and printed in fine continuous tone lithography, but they are only made with a simple RGB pallet. Despite these color limitations the artistry in blending the limited number of hues is handled with such skill to give the illusion of a broader pallet.

Many more of Stengel’s view-cards were produced in black & white, and some with hand coloring. Because of the simplicity of these cards they bare little resemblance in quality to their better known art cards, and they can easily pass for the undistinguished cards made by other publishers.

M. Sternberg   (1908-1912)
Hong Kong, China

A publisher of postcards depicting types and views in black & white and continuous tone color lithography. These cards were titled in English for an English audience.

Edward Stern & Co.   (1870-1936)
114 N. 12th, Philadelphia, PA

A printer of books since 1870. Went on to publish a number of art postcards. They are best known for their four sets of Roosevelt Bear cards. Rufus Hill owned many of their copyrights and his name appears on many cards.

Ignatz Stern   1905-1910
578 Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

Published halftone lithographic view-cards mostly depicting scenes from Long Island, Brooklyn, and New York City though other far off eastern locations were covered as well. His early black & white cards used a noticibly open halftone pattern. These cards were printed in Leipzig, Germany.

Thomas Stevens Ltd.   1869-1940
Cox Street, Coventry, England

A weaver since 1869, who began producing silk bookmarks in 1876 named Stevengraphs. Steven’s went on to expanded this process into creating other types of silk images including elaborate postcards in 1903. His factory was destroyed during a German air raid in 1940. At least 117 different titles were produced.

Stewart & Woolf   (1900-1940’s)
8-9 Charles Street, London, England

A publisher of many unique artist drawn postcards and playing cards. Many of their early cards were printed in continuous tone lithography in Bavaria. These include series on holidays, literature, opera, and sayings. A very distinct set depicts views presented in silhouette form with liberal doses of metallic overprinting. They later went on to publish a number of view-cards in halftone lithography. Some of these manufactured in Saxony were hand colored.

Georg Stilke   1858-1936
Berlin, Germany

A book publisher of some size. In addition to producing lithographic prints he published collotype view-cards of Europe and Palestine, some of which were simply hand colored in a limited pallet, as well as real photo postcards.

Stobbs Press   (1894-1967)
16 Mechanic Street, Worcester, MA

Founded by Charles R. Stobbs as a publisher of books. They later began producing halftone lithographic view-cards of somewhat poor quality.

Seneca Ray Stoddard   1860’s-1915
Glens Falls, NY

Stoddard began his career as a commercial painter of signs and railroad car interiors. In the 1860’s he joined George Conkey in the production of stereo-views of the Adirondack Mountains of New York. By 1873 Stoddard was taking photos for the Adirondack Railway and publishing his own guide books. His work as a photographer, writer, and cartographer contributed to the formation of the Adirondack Park in 1892. He produced over 10,000 photographs, which also included images of Alaska, Palestine, and Norway. Many of his photos were published as printed postcards for the National Railway News Company in Albany.

Frederick A. Stokes Co.   1890-1941
New York, NY

This important publishing house was born from the earlier F.A. Stokes & Brother. While their indicial intent was to discover new writers, they went on to produce all sorts of printed material including stationary, calendars, and novelties, becoming an important supplier of paper dolls and early comics. Many of these products were printed utilizing the three plate color engraving process of which they were pioneers. In addition they published many finely printed illustrated books and a great many lithographic postcards of varying subjects covering the comic, romantic, historical, patriotic, as well as art reproductions. They hired 48 artists to produce their initial sets of cards, which was big news at the time. Snna W. Betts, Anita Le Roy, and Richard Felton Outcault all produced artist signed cards for them. After Frederick died in 1932 his sons Horace and Bret took over the business

H.H. Stratton   (1908-1915)
Chattanooga, TN

Published international view-cards and manufactured patriotic souvenirs. They are best known for their postcard series depicting scenes of the Great White Fleet at call in various ports around the world. Some of their black & white printed cards had false real photo backs. This may have been an effort to portray the image as an unaltered news item for the printed image, though taken from a photo is difficult to misperceive as one. Stratton also published Tarjeta Postals of Cuba.

Arthur Strauss   (1900-1905)
New York, NY

Published black & white lithographic postcards in an open halftone. Some blue and red were added to the American flag within their distinct front logo design and also to their political cards. Some of their later postcards were printed in full color.

Ferdinand Strauss & Co.   (1890’s)
New York, NY

A publisher of eight known pioneer souvenir cards in halftone lithography. They consist of four views of Washington, DC, three views of New York, and one of Lake George, NY. In addition to postcards Strauss produced a variety of printed toys and novelties.

Hermann Striemann   (1910-1920)
Cottbus, Germany

A publisher of regional view-cards including scenes of Palestine in continuous tone lithography. Many of his view-cards incorporate local types.

Strobridge Lithographers   1861-1960
Cincinnati, OH

The Elijah Middleton’s steel and copper plate engraving business has been in opperation for eight years when Hines Strobridge joind them in 1855. In four years he had become a partner and in 1861 he took over the firms management. They printed a fine line of chromolithographic products but were best known for their posters for the circus, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, and the Alphonse Mucha posters for Sarah Bernhardt’s American tour. They also published many trade cards, especially for the theater, and a wide variety of postcards. By the 20th century they began printing sheets for billboards. Bought by H. S. Crocker in 1960 where it remains a division in Norwalk, OH.

Theodor Stroefer   1867-
Nuremburg, Bavaria

An important fine arts publisher. The company began printing chromolithographed art cards when postcards first became popular. Their early halftone lithographic cards employed rosette patterns.

F.G.O. Stuart   1902-1923
57-61 Cromwell Road, Southampton, England

Francis Goldelphin Osborne Stuart was a landscape and marine photographer of Hampshire, London, and the Channel Islands. His career began in London in 1873 where he manufactured hand made cameras but he moved to Southampton ten years later. It was not until 1902 that Stuart began publishing many of his images as lithographic and hand colored postcards. These cards were printed in Germany until the First World War. He is also well noted for his real photo postcards of the large steamships that docked at Southampton. During WWI he worked for the War Office for Docks recording battle damage to warships on film. In all Stuart published about 2500 postcards, some of which were produced after his death by his son in-law Charles S.S. Dawson.

Success Postal Card Co.   (1910-1922)
New York, NY

Published postcards in black & white rotogravure and color halftone lithography with a limited pallet. Their cards were printed in Berlin, Germany.

Sun News Co.   (1940-)
St. Petersburg, FL

A publisher of many Linen and Photochome postcards depicting local views and tourist attractions.

Sunny Scenes, Inc.   (1929-1939)
Winter Park, FL

Printed and published hand colored view-cards of a number of States but predominantly of Florida, California, and Hawaii. These cards are characterized by their bright colors, generic subjects, and photo like appearance.

Sun Sculpture Studio

See Underwood & Underwood

O. Svanoe   (1899-1906)
Bergen, Norway

A photographer who published his work as black and white and continuous toned lithographic view-cards.

Ernst G. Svanstrom   (1908-1914)
Stockholm, Sweden

A major publisher of postcards, especially holiday and view-cards. These cards were manufactured in sepia and with hand coloring. Many of there cards were sold in Russia and deal in Russian themes.

Frank Swallow   (1904-1942)
Exeter, NH

A publisher of open halftone lithographic view-cards of northern New England. Many of their cards were crudely hand colored.

Max Swatschek   1902-1940
Salzburg, Austria

A bookseller who also published a large number of souvenir books and postcards. These cards were printed in black & white and color lithography, many of which were artist signed.

Swedish American Line   1914-1975
Gothenburg, Sweden

Founded as the North American Shipping Corporation they opened a route between Sweden and New York. With their major competitors, the German lines, out of service during the First world war they were able to rapidly expand. They published a number of postcards depicting their ships in different styles over the years. Though they carried some freight into the 1980’s, passenger service and the postcards made for them ended in 1975.

E.A. Sweetman & Son   (1920-1928)
Tunbridge Wells, England

A photographer, publisher, and printer of gravure and real photo postcards depicting views of southern England. Different types of cards were made under different names such as the Domino Series, Solograph, and Sunshine Series that included hand colored photos. Sologloss were glossy sepia photos and Sologlaze were toned in a deep brown. Sweetman also printed cards in black & white and sepia photogravure under the names De Luxe Photogravure and Solograph de Luxe.