Louis Prang (March 12, 1824June 15, 1909) was an American printer, lithographer, publisher, and
Georgist. He is sometimes known as the "father of the American
Christmas card
A Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to Christmastide and the holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during ...
".
Youth
Prang was born in
Breslau in
Prussian Silesia
The Province of Silesia (german: Provinz Schlesien; pl, Prowincja Śląska; szl, Prowincyjŏ Ślōnskŏ) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1740 and established as an official p ...
. His father Jonas Louis Prang was a textile manufacturer and of
French Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Beza ...
origin; his mother, Rosina Silverman, was German.
Because of health problems as a boy, Prang was unable to receive much standard schooling and became an apprentice to his father, learning engraving and calico dyeing and printing. In the early 1840s, Prang travelled around
Bohemia working in printing and textiles. However, after some travel in Europe, he became involved in
revolutionary activities in 1848. Pursued by the Prussian government, he went to Switzerland and in 1850 emigrated to the United States and
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
.
Early work
Prang's early activities in the US publishing architectural books and making leather goods were not very successful, and he began to make wood engravings for illustrations in books. In 1851 he worked for
Frank Leslie
Frank Leslie (March 29, 1821 – January 10, 1880) was an English-born American engraver, illustrator, and publisher of family periodicals.
Biography
English origins
Leslie was born on March 29, 1821, in Ipswich, England as Henry Carter, the ...
, art director for ''
Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion
''Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion'' was a 19th-century illustrated periodical published in Boston, Massachusetts from 1851–1859. The magazine was founded by Frederick Gleason in 1851. The publication name was changed to ''Ballou's ...
'', and later with John Andrew of
John Andrew & Son John Andrew & Son (est.1869) was an engraving firm in Boston, Massachusetts, established by John Andrew and his son George T. Andrew. Work produced by the firm appeared in publications of Lee & Shepard
__NOTOC__
Lee & Shepard (1862-1905) was a ...
.
Lithography and career
In 1856, Prang and a partner created a press, Prang and Mayer, to produce
lithographs
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
. The company specialized in prints of buildings and towns in Massachusetts. In 1860, he bought out his partner, creating L. Prang & Company and began work in color printing of advertising and other forms of business materials.
[Meggs, Philip B. ''A History of Graphic Design''. 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 148. .] The firm became quite successful, and became known for war maps, printed during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
and distributed by newspapers.
In 1864, Prang went to Europe to learn about cutting-edge German lithography.
Returning the next year, he began to create high quality reproductions of major art works. Prang also began creating series of popular album cards, advertised to be collected into
scrapbook
Scrapbook may refer to:
* Scrapbooking, the process of making a scrapbook
Software
* Scrapbook, an early (1970s) information storage and retrieval system
* Scrapbook (Mac OS), a Mac OS application
* ScrapBook, a Firefox extension
Film and TV ...
s, showing natural scenes and patriotic symbols. At Christmas 1873, Prang began creating
greeting card
A greeting card is a piece of card stock, usually with an illustration or photo, made of high quality paper featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthdays ...
s for the popular market in England and began selling the
Christmas card
A Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to Christmastide and the holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during ...
in America in 1874; he is sometimes called the "father of the American Christmas card".
Prang is also known for his efforts to improve
art education
Visual arts education is the area of learning that is based upon the kind of art that one can see, visual arts
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, de ...
in the US, publishing instructional books and creating a foundation to train art teachers.
Prang was an active supporter of women artists, both commissioning and collecting artworks by women. Many of his lithographs featured works by female artists, such as the
botanical illustration
Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species, frequently in watercolor paintings. They must be scientifically accurate but often also have an artistic component and may be printed with a botanical ...
of
Ellen Thayer Fisher
Ellen "Nelly" Thayer Fisher (April 16, 1847 – October 15, 1911) was an American botanical illustrator. Fisher exhibited her paintings at the National Academy of Design and other exhibitions. She was an active contributor to the exhibitions ...
. In 1881, his company employed more than one hundred women.
In June 1886 Prang published a series of prints under the title ''Prang's War Pictures: Aquarelle Facsimile Prints''.
These became popular and helped inspire a genre of such prints, particularly the series issued by
Kurz and Allison.
However, Prang aimed at a more modern and individual treatment, as opposed to the panoramic style of Kurz and Allison, and before them,
Currier and Ives
Currier and Ives was a New York City printmaking business that operated between 1835 and 1907. Founded by Nathaniel Currier, the company designed and sold inexpensive, hand painted lithographic works based on news events, views of popular cult ...
.
In 1897 L. Prang & Company merged with the Taber Art Company of New Bedford, Massachusetts, creating the Taber-Prang Company and moved to
Springfield, Massachusetts.
Prang died of
pleuropneumonia
Pleuropneumonia is inflammation of the lungs and pleura, pleurisy being the inflammation of the pleura alone.
See also
* Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia – a disease in cattle
* Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia
Contagious caprine pleuro ...
on June 15, 1909, at the
Glendale Sanitarium in Los Angeles.
He is buried in
Forest Hills Cemetery
Forest Hills Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery, greenspace, arboretum and sculpture garden located in the Forest Hills section of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery was established in 1848 as a public ...
in
Jamaica Plain
Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The commun ...
, Massachusetts.
Louie Awards
Since 1988 the Greeting Card Association, the trade association representing the greeting card industry in the US, has held an annual award ceremony for the best greetings cards published that year. The awards are called Louies in recognition of Louis Prang. The most successful winner of Louie Awards is the California-based company
Meri Meri Meri may refer to:
*Meri (name)
*Meri (mythology), folk hero in Bororo mythology
*Meri, term in shakuhachi music
*''The Meri'', novel by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
*''Meri'', release title of La Mer (film) in Finland
*Meri (political party), now-defun ...
. Between 1991 and 2005 the company won 81 Awards including 13 in 2005.
Personal life
On November 1, 1851, Prang married Rosa Gerber, of
Bern; she died on June 2, 1898, and on April 15, 1900, he married
Mary Dana Hicks.
[Prang, Louis]
in ''Who's Who in America
Marquis Who's Who ( or ) is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in America'', ''Who's Who of American Wome ...
'' (1901-1902 edition), via archive.org
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
Lithographs
File:Ellen Thayer Fisher 1885 Poppies.jpg, Poppies, 1885
File:Bicycling-ca1887-bigwheelers.jpg, Bicycling
File:Civil War trompe l'oeil by Boston Public Library.jpg, Civil War trompe l'oeil
File:Dessert No. 4 by Boston Public Library.jpg, Dessert No. 4
File:Dogs Not Admitted by Boston Public Library.jpg, Dogs Not Admitted
File:A Friend in Suspense by Boston Public Library.jpg, A Friend in Suspense, (Boston Public Library)
File:North Conway Meadows by Boston Public Library.jpg, North Conway Meadows
File:Beach Scene by Boston Public Library.jpg, Beach Scene
File:Christmas card2 byLouisPrang.png, Christmas card
A Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to Christmastide and the holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during ...
by Louis Prang, showing a group of anthropomorphized
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.
Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...
frogs parading with banner and band.
File:Prang's Valentine Cards2.jpg, "Prang's Valentine cards" 1883 advertisement for L. Prang & Co., digitally restored.
File:An Object Lesson by Boston Public Library.jpg, An Object Lesson (Boston Public Library)
File:Fisherman bringing in their catch by Boston Public Library.jpg, Fisherman bringing in their catch
See also
*
*
Notes
References
* Bethany Neubauer (February 2000). "Prang, Louis". American National Biography Online. Taber Prang Art Co.
External links
The Winterthur LibraryOverview of an archival collection on Louis Prang
Louis Prang & Company CollectionThe Boston Public Library's Louis Prang & Company Collection on Flickr.com
Prang maps at the British LibraryThe Louis Prang papers, 1848–1932 Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prang, Louis
1824 births
1909 deaths
Businesspeople from Wrocław
American printers
German-American Forty-Eighters
People from the Province of Silesia
Businesspeople from Boston
Roxbury, Boston
Greeting cards
Paper products
19th-century American businesspeople
Georgists