Henry Altemus Company

1880 Altemus & Co. Ephemera

This little advertising calendar (3.875 x 2.375) from 1880 from Altemus & Co. points out the company's ability to manufacture whatever type of book the client wanted. At this time Altemus had not been routinely publishing reading books on its own imprint. Bibles, photographic albums and scrapbooks were the mainstay of their own imprint's publishing business but Altemus was very busy publishing for the needs of others.

Altemus & Co. Books - The Talisman by Henry D. Moore

The Altemus & Co. imprint can be found on Photographic albums, scrapbooks and a handful of other publications. Books with this imprint are quite scarce. Here is an example of a book with the Altemus & Co imprint. This title (The Talisman) was first published by Hogan and Thompson, a Philadelphia publisher, in 1851.

The date of the Altemus publication is unclear. Based on the use of this imprint plus the style of the book a date between 1851 and the 1870's is my best guess.

This is definitely the earliest Altemus & Co imprint that I have seen with exception of some photographic albums.

The book has gold gilt edges and measures 6.5 x 9.5.

Non Series #84- Klondike and the Yukon Country

Here is an interesting flyer that advertises Klondike written by L.A. Coolidge. It is 5.75 x 3.5. This piece was put out by the Thomson Stationery Company located in Vancouver. Two Klondike books are noted. The Coolidge authored book was published in 1897 by Altemus.

The first edition was published in 1897 in both wraps and hardcover. Later in 1897 Altemus did a second printing which included several new chapters.

The first edition had 213 pages plus ads. The later edition had 251 pages.

Gusky's Publication

The four volume Shakespeare non series set was first published in 1891. Interestingly this set has been discovered with the Gusky Store of Pittsburgh imprint on the title page and Henry Altemus 1891 on the copyright page. With the exception of the imprint and the elegantly decorated end papers in the Altemus book, the four volume Altemus set is identical to the four volume Gusky set. It would appear that Altemus published this set for Gusky to sell in his store. Although I have seen some non-Altemus advertising in several other Altemus books, I have never seen a book that Altemus published for a department store. This is especially interesting considering that the Gusky set potentially could compete with the Altemus set. It is unclear at this time exactly what year the Gusky set was published (I assume in the early 1890's) and what sort of deal the Gusky Store and Altemus had. Of note is that there are no books with the Gusky imprint listed for sale anywhere that I can find on the web.

J.M. Gusky (1845-1886) bought out a mercantile establishment called S. Cohen in 1882. He renamed it the Gusky Store. The Gusky Store is considered by most to be Pittsburgh's first department store. The store occupied five stories and sold mainly a variety clothing. After Gusky's death from pneumonia his wife owned the business and the De Wolf brothers managed it. By 1888 it had more than two million dollars in sales.

Stock Certificate

This stock certificate from the Packer Coal Company was printed by Altemus & Company. The signer, Israel Morris, bought 38 shares in 1885. Of note is that the Packer Coal Company which was located in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was founded by Asa Packer, the founder of Lehigh University. (My daughter's school). Of further interest is that the signer Israel Morris was a well known and well connected Philadelphia businessman.

As noted before, Altemus & Company did various types of printing in the 1800's. Stock certificates are only one example. This is the second different company's certificate printed by Altemus that I have located. I suspect that there are more. ( The Altemus & Co. imprint is on the lower left of the certificate.)

Belles Lettres Series

Here is a nice little advertising piece (5.875 x 3. 375) for the Belles Lettres Series.

It lists 26 volumes in the series at 30 cents each. Since the first 28 volumes were published in 1896, this dates the flyer to 1896.

Shakespeare's Plays

In the early 1900’s department stores were a popular place to buy books. Most large stores had impressive book departments. I remember even as late as the 1950’s in my hometown of Milwaukee Gimbels, The Boston Store and Schusters had these departments.

Here is a fascinating ephemera piece.

The Shakespeare Series (#164) was a 39 volume set published from 1899 until Altemus went out of business in 1933. The books were sold separately as well as by the set. Boxed sets were sold beginning in 1909. As of the date of this flyer in 1907 the hard cover books sold for 35 cents while the soft leather ones sold for 50 cents.

One of the things that I have noticed over the years is how common these books are. I am asked questions about this series almost as often as I am about any Altemus books. The only reasonable explanation is that they were a giant selling success for Altemus. Perhaps this flyer helps us understand a bit.

Here is a department store from Rochester (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibley's) that is offering quite a deal. Sibley’s offers 27 volumes of this series at 15 cents each i.e. 56% off the retail price. This is on some payment plan that is not elucidated by the flyer but when the payments are done, the remaining 12 books are given to the buyer for no additional cost. This is a great deal. Effectively that is selling the whole set for $4.05 -a bit more than a dime per book.

The reverse side of the flyer allows the purchaser to select which 27 titles he wants.

This flyer which is 7.75 x 3.75 was found in a copy of one of the Shakespeare’s books. This is the only flyer I have seen that mentions Altemus books which was not an Altemus publication.

1860 Ad for Book Bindery

Photographic Album

I found a new Altemus photographic advertising card today. All three cards seen here are very similar and yet there are subtle differences between the cards. This card has the familiar eagle on the front but above the eagle there is no writing as in card 2a. Below the ALTEMUS & COs lettering but above the words Photographic Albums, this card has the words Patent Hinge Back as does card 2a but not card 1a. Thus this card is different from the other two cards but not by much.

The reverse of this card is the same as card 2b. The card is 2.375 x 3.875.

The album this card was found in was the typical 1860's to 1890's album. It has 25 pages each of which hold two cards-one on each side. It is 6 x 5.5.

See below.

3a

3b

Good Times Series

Another advertising flyer has been discovered. It is for Series #100- Good Times Series.

This flyer is 8 x 5.5 which is slightly larger than the page size of the actual Good Time Books. It was discovered within a book from the series.