Following the United States Centennial celebration of 1876, Americans, more than ever before, sought tokens of their historic achievement as a new nation. The publishing industry played an important role providing people with proof of their civilization and reminders of their potential. Although the wealthiest travelers were able to collect artifacts as mementos for display in their homes and museums, people of lesser means could afford only likenesses of man-made and natural wonders. Photography and lithography were used to record the surroundings and settlement changes of North America.

In response to a mania for such pictures, big companies were formed which published lithographs, stereoscopic views, individual photographs, and view books or souvenir books. These included small books of lithographs, which are the subject of this article. Of the inumerable publishers of views, only a few devoted extensive efforts from the 1870's to the early 1890's to the specialization in miniature souvenir books utilizing the lithographic process. Although many businessmen, usually stationiers, were responsible for the publication of a lithographic souvenir book or two, these lesser entrepreneurs published works almost exclusively about their locales. Among the major publishers of these topographic books were the Chisholm Brothers of Portland Maine, the Ward Brothers of Columbus Ohio, and the Wittemann Brothers of New York City. Both the Ward Brothers and the Wittemann published lithographic souvenir books about all parts of the United States, wheras the Chisholm Brothers concetrated their efforts in the Northeast and Canada.

Upon examination, these are pocket sized booklets in hard covers, mostly representing very attractive bindings. On opening, there is exposed a long strip of illustrations, printed on one side only, which is then fan-folded into the covers, often refered to as accordion folds, and similar in construction to "folding postcards". At first glance, many of the illustrations appear to be photographs. As a matter of fact, they were based on photographs, with the lithographer taking liberties with details. Sometimes by subtracting parts of the image or by adding to the details. They were printed in varying shades of sepia, sometimes varied by addition of more black or blue or red in the inks. Rarely were they printed in four colors. Most noticeable was the differential use of varnish in finishing the illustrations. The varnish cover was limited to the darker areas of the illustration, often giving a hint of depth.

Libraries have, in general, evidently looked upon this particular group of publications as being what is referred to as ephemera, because the number collected by libraries has been relatively small. The only library found with a substantual number is the Library of Congress. This is probably explained by copyright deposits. However many of the view books for which there are copyright records are not in the Library of Congress collection. Although they are all now becoming scarce, only one title was found in the rare book collections of the Library of Congress. On the other hand, most of the titles found in other libraries are in the rare book or special local history collections. *

Between the Wittemann Brothers, Ward Brothers, Chisholm Brothers, and other publishers about 500 titles have been found, it is estimated that there are about 800 total titles of these particalar style view books published. These scenic view books are now a significant pictorial source for American history during the late 19th century.

* (This information on libraries was gathered in 1986)

	Shop Our Product Line Find out how to Browse and Buy these Great Books on CD-ROM