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Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 2

Worthies of the Craft. — Louis Prang. — (Export Journal.)

page 91

Worthies of the Craft.
Louis Prang.
(Export Journal.)

Louis Prang, the founder of the renowned lithographic house of L. Prang & Co., Boston, is one of those numerous Germans who, in the troublous times of 1848-9 sought a new home in the distant West. He was destined for the calico-printing trade, and as proof of the excellence of his education in this branch it is related that he was commissioned by a Bohemian manufacturer to travel for four years in the chief calico printing centres to view the leading works, and then to erect a new factory in Bohemia with all the newest methods and improvements. He had accordingly travelled in Austria, France, Switzerland, and England, when the further development of his contract was broken off by the political events above alluded to.

In 1850, Mr Prang, then 26 years old, landed in New York, and sought in vain to find a place in any of the New England factories. He then went to Boston, where, in conjunction with an architect, he published architectural books and a review. The undertaking, however, afforded him no other advantage than that he learned drawing on stone from his partner. A second attempt, the manufacture of pasteboard boxes, was also unsuccessful, and with twenty-five dollars in his pocket, he turned to wood-engraving. In this he was successful, and after five years his industry had enabled him not only to discharge all his obligations, but also to save a few hundred dollars for further schemes. The continuous exertion and sedentary character of the occupation, however, had an injurious influence on his constitution, and he accordingly devoted himself to a more congenial branch, which turned out to be the foundation of his fortune.

In 1856 Mr Prang entered into partnership with a lithographer, and the two founded a lithographic printing office with a very modest plant and a specialty for color printing. The new firm progressed slowly but surely: only once was its prosperity threatened, when the civil war broke out. War maps and portraits of celebrated generals took the place of flowers, landscapes, and animal pictures, and in some measure compensated for the stagnation of ordinary trade. With the growth of the country grew also the productions of the house, and the frequent necessity of securing larger premises shewed that it was in favor with artists and the public. Mr Prang knew not only how to satisfy but also how to educate public taste. It was his great aim to offer the best that could be done in chromolithography, and in 1864 he returned to Europe to see what improvements had been made there in his art. He brought back with him several first-class hands, and since then his chromos have found a sale not in America alone but also in Europe and Australia.

In 1877 a fire destroyed the factory which had been built ten years before from Prang's designs, and a new factory was then built which, with later additions, redoubled the firm's output. Notwithstanding the vast amount of work produced, the house has never neglected artistic finish and design, trusting to the public to appreciate work of real excellence.

A further branch of Mr Prang's work is the Prang Educational Company, whose drawing-books and books of instruction in drawing have had a great influence in developing art education in America.

It is, above all, the glory of the house to have developed itself in ground which had first to be prepared for the reception of new ideas and new achievements.