Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Visual Materials
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Image of a letters patent certificate "No. 104996" issued to lithographer Louis Prang certifying he "invented a new and useful improvement in library shears" dated July 5, 1870; goddess Columbia with American flag and bald eagle at the center of a scene featuring the industrial and agrarian sides of the United States; woman at left cards wool near a spinning wheel with machinery and an industrial city behind her; man at right holds a hand scythe and watches another farmer harvest a field with a horse team and machinery; official seal and ribbon at bottom left.
priJLC_PRG_002318
Image not available
Visual Materials
The Jay T. Last collection of printing and publishing: Louis Prang archive contains over 3,600 items dating from 1858 to 1916, with the bulk of the items spanning from 1860 to 1897. This archive chronicles the business history of Boston lithographer Louis Prang through art prints, advertisements, printed volumes, and promotional ephemera produced by L. Prang & Co. and its successor companies: Prang Educational Company and Taber Prang Art Co. The archive also contains catalogs, certificates, price lists, business records and correspondence, personal letters and photographs, news clippings, and original art considered for lithographic reproduction. The collection provides a resource for studying the business and output of one of the most influential major lithographic firms in the United States in the 19th century. The images provide information about American tastes and culture as well as the evolution of advertising strategies in the 19th and early 20th centuries. As graphic materials, the prints offer evidence of developing techniques and trends in printmaking, and of the artists, lithographers, printers, and publishers involved in the creative process.
priJLC_PRG_002322
Visual Materials
Image of a letters patent certificate issued to lithographer Louis Prang for improvement in library shears, with specification of his invention and detailed descriptions of the various parts of the shears.
priJLC_PRG_002320
Image not available
Visual Materials
The Jay T. Last collection of printing and publishing: Louis Prang archive contains over 3,600 items dating from 1858 to 1916, with the bulk of the items spanning from 1860 to 1897. This archive chronicles the business history of Boston lithographer Louis Prang through art prints, advertisements, printed volumes, and promotional ephemera produced by L. Prang & Co. and its successor companies: Prang Educational Company and Taber Prang Art Co. The archive also contains catalogs, certificates, price lists, business records and correspondence, personal letters and photographs, news clippings, and original art considered for lithographic reproduction. The collection provides a resource for studying the business and output of one of the most influential major lithographic firms in the United States in the 19th century. The images provide information about American tastes and culture as well as the evolution of advertising strategies in the 19th and early 20th centuries. As graphic materials, the prints offer evidence of developing techniques and trends in printmaking, and of the artists, lithographers, printers, and publishers involved in the creative process.
priJLC_PRG_002323
Visual Materials
Image of a diagram of a pair of library shears for patent number "104996" invented by Louis Prang; signatures of witnesses, inventor, and patent attorneys Munn & Co. below diagram; letters patent certificate issued to lithographer Louis Prang for improvement in library shears affixed to verso.
priJLC_PRG_004360
Visual Materials
Image of the United States Patent Office in Washington, D.C., at the top of a letters patent certificate transferring letters patent for "improvement in plates or dishes" from George P. Helfrish to lithographer Louis Prang; seal with witness signatures below.
priJLC_PRG_002321