P.T. Barnum is remembered as a circus impresario, and he was definitely that. But his career spanned many decades before he went into the circus business. He published a newspaper, owned more than one retail establishment, and went into politics. At heart, however, Barnum was always interested in ways to entertain the public.

He was a good businessman. He respected his audience, but he believed that some of the stories (spoofs) he told were ones his audience wanted to believe. Most historians concur that the quote, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” was not said by Barnum.

Promotion and advertising were key to all his businesses. One fellow referred to him as the “Shakespeare of advertising.”

P.T. Barnum, Early Life

P.T. Barnum (1810-1891) was born in Bethel, Connecticut. His family was middle class, so he had sporadic opportunities to attend school. But even as a child, he was eager to work. As a boy, he drove cows to and from the pasture, helped on the farm, and rode the plow horse.

As a young adult, he became a shopkeeper, and then started a local newspaper called the Herald of Freedom. Three years into the business, however, he encountered legal trouble, so he stopped publishing. At that point, he moved to New York, casting about for what to do next.

Joice Heth, P.T. Barnum’s First Exhibit

In 1835, he came upon a down-and-out promoter who was exhibiting a slave whom the promoter said was George Washington’s mammy, Joice Heth. Barnum sensed opportunity, so he bought the slave and continued the promoter’s story, adding that she was 161 years old. (Some report that he freed Heth from slavery but kept her in his employment.)

Heth said she was a devout Baptist. This gave Barnum the hook he needed. He forged baptism documents and sent an advance man to towns they would visit to schedule meetings for Joice Heth with ministers. By presenting her documents to “men of the cloth,” Barnum hoped to establish credibility. In addition, he wrote and published her biography, The Life of Joice Heth, the Nurse of George Washington.

When abolitionists agitated about exhibiting a slave, Barnum announced that all money raised would go to anti-slavery causes. There is no record of whether or not he followed through on this. He became an abolitionist late in life, however.

Touring Heth

With the proper groundwork laid, Barnum started traveling with Joice Heth. He established himself in each town and charged people admission to come in and see her.

While not anywhere near age 161, Heth was old and infirm, so it helped with Barnum’s story. When customers arrived, Heth was happy to talk to them and make up stories about caring for little George Washington. For several months, Barnum brought in about $1500 a week from the exhibit.

When ticket sales slipped, Barnum renewed interest in her by telling reporters a new story. He explained that she wasn’t real at all; that she was actually a machine made of whale bone. This brought in paying audiences again. They wanted to come back to see for themselves that she was a living being.

Economic Slump

In 1837, Barnum hit two pieces of unrelated bad luck—the U.S. economy dipped, and Joice Heth died. He had her body autopsied. The coroner said she was probably about 80 when she passed away. To his credit, Barnum arranged for Joice Heth to be buried in the Barnum family plot in Connecticut.

For the next few years, Barnum did what he could with some small performing troupes.  But businesses were struggling, and Barnum lost money.

In 1841, Barnum learned that an attraction known as Scudder’s New York Museum was for sale. These “dime museums,” as they were called, were a popular entertainment in Europe as early as the 16^th century but they reached peak popularity in the late 18^th and early 19^th century.  The museum collections typically consisted of all sorts of oddities ranging from natural history exhibits to live fish and animals. Completely fabricated beings were not ruled out.

Opening the American Museum

In 1809, John Scudder purchased a collection from previous owners. He maintained the museum for almost thirty years. When P.T. Barnum purchased it from him in 1841, Barnum knew the more unusual the displays the better. He moved Scudder’s collection to Broadway and Ann Streets (New York City) where he housed it in a series of buildings. To attract attention, Barnum flew flags along the rooftops of the buildings and had the exterior walls decorated with paintings of animals.  He also purchased a revolving light from a lighthouse so that he could attract customers at night.

Inside, the attractions ranged from natural history displays to odd zoo animals, people made of wax, and any “freaks” that Barnum came upon in his wanderings. The “Feejee Mermaid,” a monkey torso sewn on to a fish tail, was a very popular exhibit at the museum.  There was also a theater space for lectures and performances.

Because dime museums frequently attracted “riffraff,” Barnum hired guards. He wanted women alone and families to feel safe coming to his establishment.

At the height of its popularity, the museum was open 15 hours per day, six days a week.  The public couldn’t get enough of what Barnum had to offer.

Connecticut Legislature

In 1865, shortly after Barnum relocated to Connecticut, the Museum caught fire. Everything was lost. Barnum stayed in the museum business, re-building in Manhattan. When the second museum was destroyed by a fire in 1868, Barnum closed the museum for good.

By this time, he was serving in the Connecticut legislature (1865-1869). During this time, Barnum put his heart and soul into improving Bridgeport. His headquarters were there, and he worked hard to bring new businesses to the town. Barnum later served as mayor (1875-1876).

The Circus Business Beckons

In 1871, Barnum joined circus owners Dan Castello and William C. Coup to launch P.T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Hippodrome.  By 1875, he owned it outright.

He was always casting about for new performers. In Bridgeport, he came to know a young boy, Charles Stratton, who was affected by dwarfism. Barnum saw potential in teaching the young boy about show business. Eventually, he was presented as General Tom Thumb, one of Barnum’s most successful attractions. 

Bailey Comes to Bridgeport

James Bailey (1947-1906) was on his own at a young age and got a job with the William Lake and John Robinson Circus. When Robinson died unexpectedly, Bailey took on the role of manager. He bought an interest in another circus that came to be known as Cooper and Bailey. He eventually added other shows to his portfolio. 

As Bailey built his circus business, he knew his primary competition was P.T. Barnum. In 1880, Bailey took one of his shows to Bridgeport, Connecticut, to go head-to-head against Barnum. To Barnum’s consternation, Bailey’s circus outsold Barnum’s, taking in $2 for every $1 made by Barnum’s show.

Barnum saw benefits to Bailey’s operation and proposed a merger. Bailey took over management of business affairs, and Barnum focused on running the shows.

Among the sensations that Barnum brought to the United States was opera singer Jenny Lind (1820-1887). Known as the “Swedish Nightingale,” Americans loved her. Jumbo the elephant was also a huge attraction. Together, the two men really did run the “greatest show on earth.”

Death of the Greats

P.T. Barnum died in 1891. James Bailey succumbed unexpectedly in 1906, The Ringling Brothers, a competitor made up of seven siblings who toured their circus had their business eye on Barnum & Bailey. One of them attended Bailey’s funeral and soon made a deal with his widow. At first, the two units operated separately, but by 1919, the two operations were united for good. Fittingly, the first appearance of Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus was inNew York City’s  Madison Square Garden. 

To read more about that enterprise, see the profile of James A. Bailey.  Also read How Jumbo Joined the Circus—  a great tale about two circus men and an elephant.

Today the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is a worldwide symbol of opulence and the grand life of those who live in New York City, but this wasn’t how the tree began its story.

The first tree ever decorated at Rockefeller Center was improvised, put up by construction workers in December of 1931. They were grateful they had work when the country’s economic prospects were so bleak. The tree was decorated with paper garlands and some strings of cranberries, according to author Daniel Okrent who has written about the building of Rockefeller Center.  It also twinkled with reflections from a few tin cans hung by the men.

The Associated Press captured the moment. On the left side of the photograph, we can see a fellow standing at a wooden crate; he is the paymaster handing out paychecks.  The time is Christmas Eve.

Despite the Depression, the men were hired to build what was to become Rockefeller Center, a project that almost didn’t happen.  In 1928, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. leased the land from Columbia University because the Metropolitan Opera expressed interest in a midtown location.

With the stock market crash in 1929, the Metropolitan Opera backed out of its commitment. Rockefeller, too, had suffered major losses on Black Tuesday, however, after some thought, he became steadfast in his resolve to proceed with building the “city within a city” he planned.

In July 1931 a construction team broke ground on what would be the largest private construction project in New York City.  In doing so, Rockefeller not only provided jobs (some 75,000 over a nine-year period), but he also lifted morale of the entire city when people observed that a smart, wealthy businessman was expressing hope for the future.

The Tradition Begins

There was no Christmas tree in 1932 but in 1933 an official tree was selected and decorated to celebrate the first holiday season after the completion of the early buildings that became Rockefeller Center.   The first official tree was forty feet tall, double the height of the original one put up by the workers, and it was lit with 700 electric lights.  NBC Radio broadcast the lighting ceremony.

As the fame of the tree grew, so did its importance.  David P. Murbach (1952-2010) was head of the gardens division of Rockefeller Center, and for 26 years he was in charge of scouting for the tree. In The New York Times obituary about Murbach (1-5-2010), the tree selection was described as a year-round interest of his.  He sometimes traveled by helicopter to survey the trees in Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont, Ohio, New York, and even Canada.

In Pursuit of Character

“You want personality: there’s density, a height and a width that we need,” says Murbach as quoted in the article. “But some trees have a way of holding their branches. I don’t know what else to call it but character.”

Once selected, the annual rite begins: The tree remains in place until late November when a crew returns for it.  The tree is supported by a crane while cut, and then usually transferred to a specially-built trailer on which it can make the journey into New York City, though once it made the journey by barge.  The size of tree is somewhat limited in height by what can fit on the trailer (125 feet) but more so by the width of the New York City streets the tree must travel.

World Events Sometimes Reflected

In 1942 Rockefeller Center put up three trees but didn’t light them.  They were decorated in red, white, and blue “nonessential materials,” those not needed for the war effort.  The following year the tree also remained dark.

During the oil embargo in 1973 Rockefeller Center announced that they were using fewer lights, and kept them on for fewer hours than in other years. As of 2007 LED lights have been used, and they are powered by solar panels on nearby buildings.

This year’s tree, like many others have been, is a Norway spruce. The 2025 tree arrived in Manhattan from East Greenbush, New York, near Albany.  Since 2006, the trees are later donated to Habitat for Humanity. This year when the crowds disperse and the lights and ornaments come off, the tree will be milled and turned into lumber for home-building.

To read about tree-lighting at the White House, click on The Tradition of the White House Tree Lighting Ceremony.

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was the first Black labor organization to be accepted as part of the American Federation of Labor. (The AF of L was formed in 1886 and was one of the first federations of labor groups in the United States.)

When we read about railroads and “days gone by,” the stories tend to focus on the romance of traveling by rail, or the struggle of laying track throughout the western United States. Rarely do we hear about the day-to-day conditions of those who worked for the passenger railroads. The story of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters is an important chapter of that story, and it tells of labor and color and class unrest.

Pullman Palace Car Company

George M. Pullman began the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1867. The Civil War ended, and people were beginning to travel by train for business and for pleasure. Pullman felt that customers would pay a premium for luxury service and better sleeping accommodations.

A new workforce also was available with the end of the Civil War. Pullman envisioned that former slaves would be perfect as porters (servants) on a luxury railroad.  White men would work as conductors, but Black men were assigned to be porters.

For a time, the situation seemed a decent plan. Initially, Black men were delighted to find regular employment. The work was hard, and the pay was low, but it was a start.  Some men used their income to pay for education or to put a down payment on a home. For many, it was their first taste of middle class living.

Traveling the Country

Another benefit to the job was seeing the country. As the porters traveled throughout the United States, they took with them news of other areas as well as music and songs that were popular elsewhere.

Eventually this led to the Great Migration with more Blacks leaving the South and settling in other parts of the country for better job opportunities. Some even became homesteaders. (See the article about film director and homesteader Oscar Micheaux.)

Downside as Well

In addition to the low salaries, the porters had to pay for their own supplies like shoe polish and cleaning equipment. Porters were also expected to be subservient to all the white travelers. They were no longer slaves but there were many similarities in the work.

In a total depersonalization of porters as people, customers were encouraged to refer to each porter as “George,” after the founder of the company.

Paternalism

During the 19^th century, large textile factories and mining communities set the precedent of operating their own towns. They provided housing for their workers, and supplies were available at a company store where the prices weren’t necessarily cheap.

George Pullman followed this pattern for his company base. He built the town of Pullman just outside Chicago. Housing was provided, and workers were expected to patronize the company store.

Pullman realized that if he was providing a town for his white workers, he needed to do something for his maids and porters as well. He could not force integration in the town (nor would he have been inclined to), so George Pullman donated to black churches and other organizations in the Chicago area where the company was based. This increased worker loyalty. And eventually made it harder to build union support for the Brotherhood.

Inequalities Rankled

But the inequities of the working conditions continued to rankle many of the porters and maids. Porters were paid about one-third of the monthly salary earned by white conductors, and their work months were about 400 hours vs. 250 hours for conductors. In addition, the porters were expected to absorb the costs for their needed supplies as well as for food and accommodation while on the road.

The company justified the different pay scale by saying that porters could earn tips, but as workers today know, tips are not a dependable income.

Agitating for Change

Porters in the New York area were the first to push for change. But they knew that Pullman—like other big employers—hired  undercover detectives to serve as union-busters.

Since the company was headquartered in Chicago, the agitators knew they had to spread the word carefully. Many of the porters were just glad to have a steady job, and Pullman’s donations to Black causes near Chicago meant that not everyone wanted to challenge the status quo. Ironically, the techniques pioneered by the women suffragists, many of them Black women, were helpful to the Brotherhood.

In 1913, the women of Illinois–Black and white–gained state suffrage rights. With that goal accomplished, some took their experience to help fight for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and full citizenship for Black men.

Getting Around the Spies

To avoid detection by the detectives, the Brotherhood organizers knew they needed a leader who could not be brought down from within the company. With that in mind, they selected a non-Pullman executive to lead the organization.

Asa Philip Randolph was a well-connected Harlem business owner who edited a monthly magazine, The Messenger.  He was a strong leader and could operate without fear of reprisal since he had nothing to do with the Pullman Company.  He was fully committed to the fact that porters should be able to negotiate their own economic contract and that “the time had passed when a grown Black man should beg a grown white man for anything.”

Railway Labor Act

After Randolph took the helm in 1925, it took ten more years’ to win concessions for the porters. As important as their cause was, the Depression of the 1930s added to complexity of the negotiations. It was no time to walk off a job.

Finally, federal changes in the Railway Labor Act in 1934 meant that in 1935, the Brotherhood won certification to represent the porters. At that time, the American Federation of Labor fully recognized the all-Black organization.

Two years later the Brotherhood signed its first collective bargaining agreement with the Pullman Company; they gained pay increases, a shorter work week, and the right to overtime pay. Ultimately, the leadership and skills gained by members who were part of the Brotherhood went on to be used in organizing the U.S. civil rights movement. But there was nothing easy about it.

For more information, read about Septima Clark, who started citizenship schools to help with voting, Worcy Crawford who drove the Black community in Birmingham at a time when no other bus company would, and John Lewis, who was part of the civil rights movement from the original march on Selma until his recent death while serving in Congress.

Today we take air conditioning for granted. There can be community “brown-outs,” household power outages, or families who prefer open windows. But for the most part, Americans are able to spend a good deal of their time in a climate-controlled environment.  

However, the invention of air conditioning had little to do with “people comfort,” and everything to do with business challenges caused by heat.

The fellow who developed a workable cooling system in 1902 was Willis Carrier, a recent engineering graduate from Cornell University.  His remarkable invention came in response to a factory problem that arose from the summer heat and humidity in a lithograph and publishing company in Brooklyn, New York.

Before Air Conditioning

Since early man, heat has been a factor that has affected many parts of the world. The hand fan is at least 5000 years old.

On plantations, the wealthy used a cooling method developed in China in the 2^nd century. The device involved a very large overhead fan that was powered by slaves or servants.  The person turning the wheel or otherwise powering the fan stood behind a curtain so that the rich family did not have to see how much sweat it took to keep them comfortable.

If people had the option of relocating during the summer months, some families moved to the seaside or the mountains where it was cooler.  Otherwise, people made good use of their porches, sitting outside in the evenings as the weather cooled down. Many people added sleeping porches with screens so that they could sleep outside, too.

Scientific Experiments

Scientific experiments were going on around the world, looking for ways to cool the air. As early as the late 1700s, Benjamin Franklin noted that rapid evaporation of volatile liquids such as alcohol and ether could begin the cooling process. With all of the other things needing his attention, he didn’t make much progress after that though.

More progress was made by a physician in Florida in the 1850s. Dr. John Gorrie observed  that his patients improved when the weather was a little cooler. When his wife became very ill, he rigged up pans full of ice and hung them near the ceiling in her hospital room. The ice cooled the air around the pans.  Since cool air is heavier, it flowed downward.

It was thought to be the first effective system of room air conditioning. 

But ice was expensive, and it had to be brought to Florida by ship. Gorrie set to work to create an ice-making machine. He received a patent on his invention in 1851. But unfortunately, his financial backer died. He was unable to continue on with his novel project.

Patient at the Executive Mansion

In 1881, newly elected President James Garfield was shot by a gunman when he and his sons were at the D.C. train station planning on a July trip to Massachusetts.

Medical help was summoned immediately. Garfield was still alive, but the bullet was lodged in him. He was taken to the Executive Mansion. In addition to medical personnel, naval engineers were called to find a way to make the patient’s room cooler.

The naval engineer established a system where sheets dipped regularly in ice water could be hung near the patient. Then s fan blew through the sheets, keeping the president slightly cooler than he might have been. (No one had yet figured out what to do about humidity.)   

Garfield remained alive for the next two-and-a-half months but eventually died from infection.

Factories Bring People to Cities

As industrialization came about in nineteenth century America, people left farms to take jobs in the towns and cities. While a few factories had to shut down during the summer months, most factories stayed open.  Workers were expected to endure hot temperatures inside the workplace.

On Metropolitan Avenue in East Williamsburg Brooklyn, a new printing plant was completed in 1902. One of the company’s biggest jobs was to print the humor magazine, Judge. Judge was a weekly, satirical magazine that printed in color.

At that time, color printing involved running each page of the magazine through the press, one time for each color used on the page. It was a painstaking process. If the heat and humidity were too high, one color was printed on one day. The next color couldn’t be printed until the next day because the ink had to dry.

There were also other problems. In the warm weather, the paper absorbed moisture from the humid Brooklyn air. This expanded the newsprint by a fraction. The variation in the printing could be enough that when the page ran through the press for a second or a third time, the illustration no longer matched up as it should have.

Solution Needed

Just as today, many companies offer both heating and cooling solutions. This was true at the Buffalo Forge Company in Brooklyn. The furnace company recently hired a new engineering graduate from Cornell. They assigned Willis Haviland Carrier (1876-1950) to go to the lithograph company and see what might be done to cool the environment around the printing presses.

Carrier began working with fans, ducts, heaters, and perforated pipes. His plan was to force air across pipes filled with cool water from a well that was located between the two buildings of the printing plant.

In a lab, Carrier continued to experiment. He knew that he needed to devise a way to pull moisture from the air. He eventually developed the ability to simultaneously control both the temperature and humidity in an indoor space. 

While Carrier rigged up a partial solution for the summer of 1902, he continued to work on the system. By 1903, he and fellow engineer Irvine Lyle equipped the printing plant with a larger, improved version of their machine. Key to the process was an ammonia compressor to chill and rechill the water.

In 1906, Carrier received a patent for his “Apparatus for Treating Air.” Progress was coming, but at this stage, the machinery needed was big and the cost was so high that only businesses could afford to install units.

Spun Off From Company

In 1914, the Buffalo Forge Company saw that World War I was coming. Even if the U.S. remained out of the war, the company management knew that for their salvation they needed to limit their work to manufacturing.  They let go seven of the young engineers who had been working with Carrier.

But the men were ready. In 1915, they pooled their savings and formed the Carrier Engineering Company, basing it in Newark, New Jersey.

Interest in Air Conditioning Grew

By the late 1920s, summer editions of newspapers were fill with ads for “Conditioned Air.”  Many heating contractors had gone into the cooling business. It was not unusual for an entire page of the newspaper to be filled with classified ads for companies that installed air conditioning.

The systems were still too big and too costly for use in homes.

As a result, air-conditioned rooms were newsworthy. On Sunday, July 6, 1930, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch featured a photo and short article noting that the Hotel Mark Twain Coffee Shop and Dining Room remained at 70 degrees “even on the hottest days.”

Carrier Talks of Invention

Willis Carrier was also happy to provide editorial copy for the advertising pages. On June 22, 1930, he writes about the fact that the “man on the street” might view air conditioning as a new thing, but that industry had been benefiting from it for several years.

In his article, Carrier cites several examples of industries that have benefited from air conditioning. Among them, candy factories, textile industries, printing companies, and many others could now operate year-round.

Coming to the Workplace

By 1935, professors and efficiency experts were touting the fact that air conditioning saved companies money. A professor at Colgate University had studied the issue. Dr. Donald Laird of Colgate wrote in the “Review of Reviews” magazine that “…[employee] errors are 50 percent less likely to happen in conditioned than in nonconditioned air where people are uncomfortable. “Air conditioned stores sell more goods, air conditioned theaters leave a lingering appeal upon customers to return.”

Carrier’s commercial business continued to grow. Air conditioning was being added in restaurants, department stores, and other places where the public could go.

Smaller Units Needed

Home air conditioning, however, lagged behind. “Swamp coolers” were big in the South. These were usually located in attics and consisted of an oversized fan blowing through a dampened screen. Though they brought room temperatures down somewhat, they were a far cry from air conditioning. 

When World War II ended, progress in smaller air conditioners began to be made. By 1953, companies were selling a million window units a year. A few builders were also building suburban homes with central air conditioning. They saw that certain less expensive design accommodations could be made if they weren’t designing for other types of cooling from windows and attic fans.

Progress Today

Today air conditioning makes day-to-day life in warm climates more comfortable, but it also has saved lives because fewer people die of heat-related illnesses.

The cooled air has also made new types of electronics possible.  Because air conditioning cuts down on the dust generated from fans and open windows, manufacturers can now set up computers and various types of electronics that need “clean rooms,” 

But there has been a downside. As manufacturers worked with different chemicals that could increase and speed cooling, they began using chlorofluorocarbons (also known as Freon) as coolants. Unfortunately, scientists eventually saw that the chemicals made their way to the upper atmosphere and has been creating a hole in earth’s ozone layer. 

We need that layer of protection to shield earth from the sun’s radiation. By the late 1980s, the United States phased out their use.

As for Willis Carrier’s company, Carrier Worldwide is still a major player in the industrial and residential cooling and refrigeration field. The company now works on sustainability and prides itself on the progress it has made over more than one hundred years.

Today some Christmas cards are sent by email, but many cards are still mailed through the U.S. postal service. The tradition gives us all a pleasant way to keep in touch.

In America in the 1870s, businessman Louis Prang came up with a way to print beautiful cards at relatively low prices. This is how he became known as the “Father of the American Christmas Card.”

Who Was Louis Prang?

Louis Prang (1824-1909) was born in Breslau, Germany. His father was a Huguenot textile manufacturer.  Louis was a sickly child, so he received little formal education. His parents arranged for him to have private instruction in drawing, chemistry and languages.

When he was 13, he started work in his father’s factory. Both he and his father hoped that one day he would be the superintendent. His father started Louis at the bottom to learn all aspects of the trade. He worked with the staff that bleached the cloth before it could be used for printing. Then he learned about designing, mixing colors, dying fabric, and printing from blocks and rollers.

Louis Prang was in a perfect position to learn information that would prove valuable later on. Prang’s father also arranged for Louis to travel to factories in France and England as well as elsewhere in Germany to observe the various processes that were being used.

Revolutionary Crisis in 1848

With the revolutionary uprising in Germany in 1848, Louis Prang opted to leave the country for America. The young man hoped there would be better opportunities for him there.  

Prang arrived in New York on April 7, 1850. He soon saw that he would not find work in textile printing. Initially, he took whatever job he could find but then started learning to engrave on wood. This was another technique that would be useful in his printing company later on.

Cards of the Day

In the mid-19^th century, greeting cards were for the rich. Some Americans imported their cards from England. A British artist, John Callcott Horsley (1817-1903) is credited with popularizing the sending of Christmas greetings. Most were hand-made, and many were also hand-delivered.

Early cards were often black-and-white as printing in color was complex and expensive.  Some companies like Currier & Ives hired young women to add a bit of color to each card.

Louis Prang was about to change all this.

Started Prang & Meyer

In 1856, he and a partner established a lithographic firm in Boston, Prang & Meyer. Together the men created a press that made it possible to print lithographs in greater number and with greater speed.

By 1860, his partner was less interested in the company, so Prang took it over. Now called L. Prang & Company, the company blossomed, despite the war taking place.   

On a visit to Europe, Prang studied new methods used for printing in color and returned to perfect chromolithography, a process that prints color using a series of lithograph stones.

About Chromolithography

Lithography was first used in Germany in 1796. Using a flat stone (later a metal plate was used), an art image is etched with a substance that would selectively transfer ink to paper. Some printers found that they could use a greasy substance so that the ink would adhere to the greasy parts. Initially, lithographs could only be printed with one color.

The development of chromolithography offered an opportunity to print in various colors. The color process was similar to making a lithograph. Various stones—from a few (four or five) to as many as 80 stones would be created with the etching in different colors on each stone. Then the stones were printed layer by layer on the originally lithograph. Initially, the process was cumbersome and very time-consuming.

Christmas Cards

After seeing Christmas cards that were being produced in England in 1874, Louis Prang decided to produce them in the U.S. 

The cards created by chromolithography were beautiful. Prang’s artists were able to refine the image so that the coloration was subtle and realistic, and Americans loved them.

By the early 1880s, he was producing 5 million cards in a year. Small cards cost 10 cents; bigger ones a dollar.  For the day, these prices were considered high, but the cost was justified as the production of color printing required time and care.

Prang’s cards were so well-regarded, it was common for people to comment on how many Prang cards they had received that year.

Other Ventures

In addition, L. Prang Company created album cards (sets of cards featuring flowers, birds, and animals). He also printed Civil War scenes painted by Winslow Homer.

Maps, ads, business cards, and color magazines were soon being printed by Prang’s company. His work was becoming known around the world.

In 1880, he began Prang Educational to print textbooks and art supplies for public schools.

His holiday card business fell off in the mid-1890s when other printers came up with cheaper ways to print in color. Because the educational division was on form footing, Prang continued to do very well.

Many Honors

Louis Prang was frequently recognized for his work, and many organizations presented him was awards. He took home medals of recognition from every World’s Fair from 1873-1900.

His memberships in various organizations reflected his interest in many things. He was a member of many organizations: American Archaeological Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Society of the Arts, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Death in 1909

Louis Prang died of pleuropneumonia in Glendale, California, in 1909.

Nine years after Prang’s death, his company was sold, perhaps fittingly, to the American Crayon Company in Sandusky, Ohio.

For a story about the woman who popularized Valentines read about Esther Howland.

The “Tiffany Girls” was the term used for the Women’s Glass Cutting Department at Tiffany Studios. It was created in 1892 when Louis Comfort Tiffany feared his all-male production staff would go on strike.

The women’s department continued even after the strike threat passed, but the work of the women designers was not publicized. Tiffany preferred to be known as the artist behind most of the work. The contributions of women have only been written about more recently.  (Also read Tiffany Designer Clara Driscoll.)

How Tiffany Studios Grew

Louis Comfort Tiffany trained to be a painter, but he was also interested in the decorative arts. Wealthy people were just beginning to hire artists and designers to decorate their house interiors. Tiffany, textile designer Candace Wheeler, and painters Samuel Colman and Lockwood De Forest formed a company to provide this service.

Calling themselves, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Associated Artists, they began the company in 1879 and collaborated on interior design work for clients. Candace Wheeler often used hand-embroidered materials created by women in the company’s employ. Tiffany became aware and appreciative of the work done by these women. This may have cleared the way for hiring women for the glass manufacturing company, he started later on.

During the six years that Associated Artists existed, they had wealthy and often well-known clients. In 1881, Mark Twain hired Associated Artists to decorate his house in Hartford, Connecticut. (The house with the work by the design firm can still be visited today.)

Later that year, Chester Arthur refused to move into the president’s executive mansion (now known as the White House), until some redecorating was done. He commissioned Louis Tiffany and Associated Artists. Several of the formal rooms on the ground floor were painted and refurbished under Tiffany. Tiffany also installed a floor-to-ceiling glass screen in the entrance hall (removed by Teddy Roosevelt, perhaps because he was moving in with young children). Some think this screen may have been what inspired Tiffany to focus on glasswork.

Glasswork Factory

In 1885, Louis Tiffany left Associated Artists to spend more time working in glass. He was fascinated by the use of glass for desk accessories, lampshades, and stained glass windows. When he first began to specialize in this, he purchased his glass from an outside vendor.  He was troubled by the fact that his competitors could purchase similar materials from the glassmakers he used.

As a result, he wanted his own glassmaking company. Contemporary glassmakers were working to refine glass so that windows became more clear. Tiffany found beauty in glass that was not yet refined. Opalescent glass fascinated him, and he particularly liked the way glass bottles and jelly jars refracted the light because of impurities within the glass.

Because Tiffany’s primary inspiration for his art was from nature, he particularly wondered how glass might mimic rippling water or how glass with a green hue might depict subtle shifts of color the way foliage does. 

Tiffany Meets Glassmaker Arthur Nash

Arthur J. Nash (1894-1934) was born near Stourbridge, England, and went to school to study the chemistry of glassmaking. He found work with well-respected firms in England and was head of glass design at Edward Webb & Sons near his hometown. But in 1890, business in England slowed. When a friend suggested he travel to New York to meet Louis Comfort Tiffany, Nash was amenable.

Tiffany recognized in Nash the talent that he needed. In 1892, he set up the Corona Glass Factory in Queens and put Nash in charge.  In that era, stained glass windows were generally created of painted glass. Tiffany aspired for Nash to create glass that embodied the colors. As the men worked alongside other chemists hired by Nash, they saw that various minerals could be used to create colors.

While Tiffany must have been on site a great deal in the beginning, it was Nash who created the formulas for the glass. The men saw, for example, that uranium produced yellow; iron oxide made green. In addition, various mixes altered shades of the color in question. It was particularly exciting when they saw that gold added to a mixture created a vibrant, eye-catching ruby red.

Secrecy Important

Eventually, Nash had a list 100 possible ingredients (quartz, antimony sulfide. uranium oxide, silver nitrate, arsenic, etc.) he used to make the colors Tiffany desired. Arthur Nash kept the formulas in a locked notebook in a separate laboratory in the factory. While a few other chemists would have worked with the colors, it is doubtful that even Tiffany knew the formulas.  (Arthur Nash’s collection of notebooks is kept at the Corning Museum of Glass.)

As Tiffany worked with Nash, they found that they had a new type of glass: As Tiffany had wanted, the glass caught the eye and reflected the light. Much of it shimmered and had an iridescence that was unique to Tiffany Studios. Tiffany trademarked the glass, as Favrile glass, The glass was patented under Tiffany’s name, as Favrile glass. (The patent was dated November 13, 1894, U.S. Patent no. 25,512.)

As Tiffany and his artists saw, the glass could look like a rippling stream, the  wing of a butterfly, or the petal of a beautiful flower.

Secrecy was so important that Nash recorded the formulas in a code known to just a few of his workers. The color batches themselves were mixed in wooden bowls in the lab away from other people.  After the basic color was prepared, the chemists would bring out the color being made to be added into the mixer before the item was mixed, formed and fired.

Other Creations

Louis Tiffany and Arthur Nash were both obsessed with what could be created in glass. They developed ways to combine two or more colors within a single piece of glass, and Nash came up with ways where the glass was veined, changing throughout a single piece of glass. Depth was added to some piece of glass by placing one color behind another and fusing them.

The Art of Tiffany

The creation of the glass was only a first step in creating what Tiffany wanted in his art. He and a design department (including Agnes Northrop, see below) planned the design for windows or screens and other decorative household items. 

The next part of the intricate process was selecting each piece of glass for the project under design. The nuance of the art came from each piece of green, for example, being the right green as the structure of a leaf was assembled. This work was highly detailed and required full concentration. For that reason, the glass workers were paired. One person made the glass selection and specified how the piece should be cut. The second team member cut the glass.

For works of stained glass, the assemblage of the pieces was key to the beauty. Louis Tiffany saw that glass worker Sanford Bray’s system of linking glass pieces together was the best. Bray held a patent on a “copper foil” technique that permitted each piece of  glass to be edged and then soldered together. The method was seamless and did not detract from the art. Tiffany purchased the right to use Bray’s process, and it was the key to all that was made by the Studios. (This patent was for “Joining Glass Mosaics,” and it was issued on September 21, 1886, U.S. Patent no. 349,424.)

Strike Threatens Studio

In 1892, a potential strike by the all-male staff of Tiffany Studios threatened production output at Tiffany Studios. Louis Comfort Tiffany requested that Clara Driscoll, one of the women who worked for him, put together a women’s glass-cutting department to prevent a work stoppage.

Driscoll started out with six women, and the department grew to be as large as thirty-five. However, in 1903, the men complained about the women’s department and threatened another strike. In order to keep the men working, Tiffany made an agreement that he would not employ more than 27 women.

Women’s Department

Society at that time looked down upon married women being employed. Everyone from teachers to clerks were let go when they were to marry.  Clara Driscoll served as Tiffany’s department manager. Her letters home reflect the frustration of having to let talented women go because they were engaged.  Because of this rule, Clara spent a notable amount of her time hiring and training new workers. (See more about Clara Driscoll here.)

Clara’s letters, otherwise, provide a wealth of information about the women’s department.  She writes of camaraderie among the women. At times it sounds almost sorority-like.  They sometimes vacationed together, taking leisure expeditions to beaches at Staten Island, New Jersey, and New Rochelle. 

Agnes Northrop: Longtime Tiffany Designer

Agnes Northrop (1857-1953) started with Tiffany in about 1884 and continued on with him for almost 50 years. Northrop was hired for the design department and worked her way up to having a separate studio as a few of the men also had. She never took on management responsibilities, nor was she ever included as one of the “Tiffany Girls.”

Like Tiffany, Agnes Northrop, loved working from nature. She was an avid photographer and was often out in the field to document the flowers or leaves that were to appear in an upcoming window or other work of art. 

Under Tiffany’s aegis, Northrop introduced wholly new subjects to stained glass—landscapes and gardens—for both religious and domestic settings. She also designed some of the most memorable windows to emerge from Tiffany Studios.

Recognition at the Paris World’s Fair

In addition to the stained glass windows for which she is remembered, she also oversaw designs for silks and carpets made by the company. 

The Paris World’s Fair of 1900 was notable for the fact that the rules stated that the artist of each piece needed to be separately identified. As a result, those who worked for Tiffany were singled out for their accomplishments. Northrop was awarded a silver medal for her stained-glass designs.  Arthur Nash, Clara Driscoll, and Tiffany himself were also recognized that year. 

The Tiffany Girls, however, were the unsung heroes. Today we know they were responsible for much of the beautiful design work of the day. 

To read about Tiffany designer Clara Driscoll, click here.