Henry Altemus Company

E. R. Curtis and Company, Cincinnati (Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress)

Altemus occasionally produced books for other companies to claim as their own. These books are identical to the Altemus editions except for the imprint which indicates a company other than Altemus. Examples of these books are hard to find. Here is a new one for the database.

This book has the E. R. Curtis & Co. imprint on the title page but in every other way is identical to the Altemus published book of the same title.
1. The Henry Altemus embossed logo is on the back cover of the book.
2. The front cover is identical to the Altemus Format 2 Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress which was first published in late 1890. (http://henryaltemus.com/images/NS_28.htm)
3. The title page has Altemus' Edition at the top.
4. On the copyright page it shows the earliest of the three Altemus Format 2 copyright notices.

Thus, this book was published by Altemus for E. R. Curtis in the early 1890's.

Scrapbooks (Newspaper Cuttings)

This large scrapbook (11.25 x 9.25) is similar to the smaller scrapbook previously shown. It has 100 pages for newspaper cuttings and alphabetized ledger pages as well. This scrapbook was also copyrighted in 1874.

Altemus Bindery

The Poetical Works of Rogers, Campbell, J. Montgomery, Lambe, and Kirke White

1847 Published by Grigg and Elliot, Philadelphia

Altemus Bindery

The Poetical Works of Milton, Young, Gray, Beattie, and Collins.

This 1847 was also published by Grigg and Elliot in Philadelphia.

Altemus Bindery

The Works of Lord Byron by George Gordon Byron

1847 publication of Grigg and Elliot

The J. T. Altemus Binder Phila embossed lettering is at the top of the cover. Clearly, it could be overlooked if the cover is not examined carefully.

J. T. Altemus Binder Phila

Altemus Bindery

Biographies of Cleveland and Hendricks by Gen’l Benjamin La Fevre Baird & Dillon 1884

Here is an example of a Henry Altemus bound book published in 1884 by Baird & Dillon, a Chicago publisher. This is the second Campaign of ’84 Altemus bound book seen so far. Interestingly this is the second of a matching pair of presidential biographies.

Altemus Bindery

Biographies of Blaine and Logan by Thos. V. Copper published by Baird and Dillon, Chicago and New York

Thos. V. Cooper wrote several political books in the 1880?s and early 1990?s. A number of different firms published his books. This book was published by Baird and Dillon in 1884. It is 9.5 x 6.5.

Two different cover formats have been seen. One in cloth and the other in leather. Both are shown below.

Interestingly the binder was noted on the copyright page as Henry Altemus not Altemus and Company. By the early 1890?s Altemus was concentrating more on publishing its own books.

Altemus Bindery

American Politics by Thomas V. Cooper Fireside Publishing Company 1883

In the 1880?s and 1890?s even though Altemus was ramping up its own publishing business, it was still doing some binding for other publishing houses. Here is an example of one of those efforts. This oversized book (9.5 x 6) was published by the Fireside Publishing Company. It is not surprising that Altemus did the binding for this company since Howard Altemus was the manager of the Fireside Publishing Company until he joined his father at Altemus and Company.

Stock Certificate

Altemus and Company was mainly a printer in the 1880's. In addition to blank books, stationery and the like, a number of Altemus printed stock certificates have been seen. Here is a second stock certificate (for this website) for a Colorado mining company. This 1881 certificate for 500 shares was issued by the Lincoln Mining Company of Leadville, Colorado. Note the "Altemus & Co. Phil" imprint on the bottom left.

It is impossible to know how many companies contracted with Altemus to print their stock certificates. Here is the fourth one that I have found.

Filmascope

Below is a reel of film filmed by the James C. Muir and Company, a Philadelphia firm. This reel contains 32 pictures (no text) from the Wee Folks Cinderella Series Tom Thumb Book (http://henryaltemus.com/series/series188.htm).

The reel is titled "Filmascope" Tom Thumb and was "reproduced with the Permission of Henry Altemus Company Philadelphia", Copyright 1921.

Apparently Muir produced a number of these little reels in the late 1920's. I presume that the little metal canister is an original.