Henry Altemus Company

 

Altemus & Co. Miscellaneous Publications


 

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Altemus & Co. Books

Ledgers/Blank Books

Scrapbooks (Newspaper Cuttings)

 

Altemus & Co. Books

 

Although the main imprints used by Altemus were Henry Altemus and Henry Altemus Company, the Altemus & Co. imprint can be found on early Bibles from the 1870's, scrapbooks and photograph albums. The Altemus & Company press also printed various volumes for groups mostly in and around Philadelphia. These books were generally produced in small quantities and are quite scarce.

Examples are The Tenth Annual Report of the Women's Christian Association of Germantown in 1881, the By-Laws of the Kensington Hospital for Women in 1867, and a small booklet entitled the Bachelors Barge Club of Philadelphia. This latter volume published in 1914 is shown below.

Interestingly enough this small book lists the names of the members of the Barge Club and when they joined. Henry Altemus Sr.'s four sons, all who were involved with the publishing Company, were members. Henry Jr., Howard, Robert and Roland.

 

The Talisman- An Altemus & Company publication

 

As is noted above, 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 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.

 

Tenth Annual Report of the Women's Christian Association (1881)

 

This 11 page pamphlet was published by the "Press of Altemus and Co. in 1881. Interestingly Altemus did not publish any other Annual Reports for this organization.

 

Pictures courtesy of The Library Company of Philadelphia. Special thanks to Nicole Joniec.

 

Altemus & Co.: Ledger/ Blank Books

 

This ledger was published by Altemus & Co. The exact date cannot be determined but the book contains information that is dated in 1925. Altemus & Co. was at the Fourth Street address at that time. The Altemus stamp as shown below is pasted on the inside front cover of the book. A careful inspection does not reveal any mention of Altemus on the binding or anywhere else within the ledger. The ledger is 9.5 x 12. On the spine the name of the owner is embossed in gold.

 

Altemus & Co.: Blank Book

 

Here is a 19th century blank book published by Altemus & Co. This is only the second one that I have seen.

As is also noted in the previous blank book shown, inside the front cover is a label indicating Altemus & Co. with catalogue number and volume identifiers.

This book dates from the 1880's. Altemus was at the 26 South Fourth Street address at that time. It appears that the 26 S. Fourth Street address was used mainly for ledgers and blank books while the Market Street and later the Cherry Street addresses were publishing Photographic Albums and Bibles.

I want to thank Susan Caughlan from the Worchester Historical Society for providing these pictures.

 

 

Ledger/Blank Book

 

Here is another 19th century ledger published by Altemus and Co. These blank books are incredibly scarce. The only evidence that it was published by Altemus is the label that was pasted on the inside front cover. This was also the case with the other two ledgers/blank books shown on this page.

The Altemus 26 South Fourth Street address indicates a book from the 1880's. This ledger was obviously produced for the Safe Harbor Safe Deposit Company. It has 440 pages. It is 14 x 9.5.

 

Ledger/Blank Book

 

This ledger is 12" x 6" and has about 150 pages. Some entrees are dated 1906.
This is the third of these Altemus "Blank books" I have seen.

 

Scrapbooks (Newspaper Cuttings)

 

This 120 page scrapbook is 9.25" x 7.5". It was copyrighted by Altemus & Co. in 1874.

 

Scrapbooks (Newspaper Cuttings)

 

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

 

 

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Last Revision December 9, 2019