Jay T. Last Collection of Artist Posters: Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by Charla DelaCuadra.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Prints and Ephemera

The Huntington Library

1151 Oxford Road

San Marino, California 91108

Phone: (626) 405-2191

Email: reference@huntington.org

URL: http://www.huntington.org

©July 2019

Overview of the Collection

Title: Jay T. Last collection of artist posters

Dates (inclusive): 1883-1964

Bulk dates: 1890-1900

Collection Number: priJLC_ART

Collector: Last, Jay T.

Extent: 378 items

Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Prints and Ephemera

1151 Oxford Road

San Marino, California 91108

Phone: (626) 405-2191

Email: reference@huntington.org

URL: http://www.huntington.org

Abstract: The Jay T. Last collection of artist posters contains over 370 printed works spanning over eighty years, from 1883-1964. The bulk of the materials date from 1890 to 1900 and advertise American literary books and periodicals. Bicycles, household goods, and other products are also advertised. Notable artists represented in the collection include Will Bradley, Maynard Dixon, J. J. Gould, Edward Penfield, Ethel Reed, and Louis Rhead. Subjects addressed within the collection include international art styles (such as Art Nouveau), fashion, graphic design, publishing, book and literary journal publication, advertising, and the intersections between them, especially during the last decade of the 19th century.

Language: English.

Note:

Finding aid last updated on July 25, 2019.

Access

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Administrative Information

Publication Rights

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred Citation

[Item title, Call number]. Jay T. Last collection of artist posters, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Provenance

This collection forms part of the Jay T. Last Collection of Graphic Arts and Social History, which was donated to the Huntington Library by Jay T. Last in 2005 as a gift in progress. The bulk of the artist posters were transferred to the Library between 2010 and 2012.

Background

The Jay T. Last collection is an unparalleled archive of printed paper artifacts that documents American lithographic, social, and business history. The collection began in the early 1970s when physicist and Silicon Valley pioneer Jay Last moved to Southern California and started collecting citrus box labels he found at local flea markets and rummage sales. As his collection grew, Last realized that these labels conveyed important information about commercial printing, graphic design, and social history, and he expanded his collection to include other forms of American visual culture. Today this collection contains more than 200,000 lithographic prints, posters, and ephemera of mostly nineteenth- and early twentieth- century American origin and represents works by more than five hundred lithographic companies.

Scope and Content

The Jay T. Last collection of artist posters contains over 370 printed works from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The bulk of the materials date from 1890 to 1900 and advertise American literary books and periodicals. Bicycles, household goods, and other products are also advertised.

Materials are fully inventoried, and all printers, artists, and publishers are indexed by name. Notable illustrators represented in the collection include Will Bradley, Maynard Dixon, J. J. Gould, Edward Penfield, Ethel Reed, and Louis Rhead. The collection includes over 100 posters collected by illustrator Curtis Wager-Smith (1870-1950), some with inscriptions to her from the artist.

Subjects addressed within the collection include art styles, book and literary journal publication, advertising, and the intersections between them, especially during the last decade of the 19th century. The images encompass the popularization of Art Nouveau in the United States, as well as the advertising strategies employed by various industries in the 19th and early 20th centuries. As graphic materials, the items offer evidence of visual culture and printmaking techniques and trends, as well as information about the artists, engravers, lithographers, printers, and publishers involved in the creative process.

Alternative Form of Materials Available

Visit the Huntington Digital Library: Jay T. Last Collection to view digitized items from this collection.

Related materials in the Huntington Library

Artist posters collection

Arrangement

Items are arranged alphabetically by artist and described in the following format:

Call number. Title of print. Date
Artist(s) (when known). Printer(s). Publisher(s)

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Huntington Library's Online Catalog.

Genres

Book & magazine posters.

Chromolithographs.

Ephemera.

Ephemera -- United States -- 19th century.

Ephemera -- United States -- 20th century.

Lithographs.

Posters.

Printed ephemera.

Promotional materials.

Subjects

Advertising -- Books.

Advertising -- Periodicals.

Bicycles -- Pictorial works.

Books -- Pictorial works.

Children -- Pictorial works.

Couples -- Pictorial works.

Flowers -- Pictorial works.

Men -- Pictorial works.

Reading -- Pictorial works.

Women -- Pictorial works.

Printer, Publisher, Artist Index

The following is a complete list of printers, publishers, and artists represented in this collection.

A.S. Seer’s Printing Establishment (New York, N.Y.)

Abbey, Edwin Austin, 1852-1911.

Abbott, Elenore Plaisted.

Adamson, Sydney.

American Colortype Company.

American Lithographic Co.

Armstrong & Co. (Boston, Mass.)

Artique, Peter.

Artique, Pierre.

Bacheller, Johnson & Bacheller.

Balano, Paula Himmelsbach.

Barnes, Will R., -1939.

Beard, Daniel Carter, 1850-1941.

Beck, A. R.

Biles, James Norman, 1863-1914.

Binner Engraving Co.

Biorn, Emil, 1864-

Bird, Elisha Brown.

Blank & Co.

Blumenschein, E. L. (Ernest Leonard), 1874-1960

Bonte, Willard, 1873-

Boston Eng. Co.

Bradley, Will, 1868-1962.

Bragdon, Claude Fayette, 1866-1946.

Brett Lithographing Co.

Briggs, W. K.

Brill, George Reiter, 1867-1918.

Callaghan and Company.

Carqueville, William L., 1871-1946.

Castaigne, J. André.

Century Company.

Chamberlin, F. X.

Champe (Artist)

Channing, B. M.

Charles Scribner’s Sons.

Chicago Colortype Co.

Christy, Howard Chandler, 1873-1952.

Clay, John Cecil, 1875-

Copeland and Day.

Courier Company.

Cox, Charles A.

Cox, Kenyon, 1856-1919.

D. Appleton and Company.

Dando Print.

Davies, Syd.

Davis, J. Watson

Day, Francis, 1863-

DeLand, Clyde O., 1872-1947.

Denslow, W. W. (William Wallace), 1856-1915.

Dixon, Maynard, 1875-1946.

Dodd, Mead & Company.

Dow, Arthur W. (Arthur Wesley), 1857-1922 .

E. Scott Co.

Eaton, Hugh M., 1865-1924.

Eddy, H. B. (Henry Brevoort)

Edgar C. Ruwe Company.

Edge, F. Gilbert.

Edwards, Edward (Artist)

Edwards, George Wharton, 1859-1950.

Ellery-Howard Co.

Ellis, Harvey, 1852-1904.

Emerson, Ralph L.

Flagg, James Montgomery, 1877-1960.

Fleming & Carnrick.

Fleming, Schiller & Carnrick Press.

Fleming, Thomas, 1853-1931.

Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company.

Frederick A. Stokes Company.

G.H. Buek & Co.

G.W. Dillingham Co.

Gandy, C. (Curtis)

Garrett, Edmund H. (Edmund Henry), 1853-1929.

Geo. H. Richmond and Co.

Geo. H. Walker & Co.

Gies & Co.

Gihon, A. D.

Gillin Print Co.

Glackens, William J., 1870-1938.

Glenny, Alice Russell.

Goodhue, Bertram Grosvenor, 1869-1924.

Gould, J. J., Jr. (Joseph J.), 1880-1935.

Grasset, Eugène, 1841-1917.

Greenough, Walter Conant.

Grignard Litho. Co.

Guérin, Jules Vallée, 1866-1946.

Gunn, Archie, 1863-1930.

H.A. Thomas & Wylie.

Hallowell, Geo. H.

Halm, Geo. R. (George R.), 1850-1899.

Hambidge, Jay, 1867-1924.

Harper & Brothers.

Harpiot, C.

Haskell, Ernest, 1876-1925.

Hayes Bros. (Philadelphia, Pa.)

Hazenplug, Frank, 1874-1931.

Heliotype Printing Co.

Hinds & Ketcham.

Hobart, Clark.

Hooper, Charles Edward.

Hooper, Will Phillip.

Huneker, Clio Hinton.

Hurd, L. F.

Inness, George, 1854-1926.

International News Company (New York, N.Y.)

Ireland, H. I.

J. Ottman Lithographic Company.

Jenson Press.

Justice, Martin.

Kemble, E. W. (Edward Windsor), 1861-1933.

Kendall, William Sergeant, 1869-1938.

L. Prang & Co.

Lammers, Herman C.

Lamson, Wolffe & Co.

Ledger Job Printing Office (Philadelphia, Pa.)

Leyendecker, J. C. (Joseph Christian), 1874-1951.

Liebler & Maass.

Lincoln, A. B. W.

Linson, Corwin Knapp, 1864-

Longmans, Green, and Co.

Loury, H. S. (Harriet S.)

Lowell, Orson, 1871-1956.

Lowry, H. S.

Lundborg, Florence, 1871-1949.

Mayer, Henry, 1868-1954.

McCarter, Henry, 1864-1942.

McCutcheon, John C.

McManus, Blanche, 1869-1935.

Métivet, Lucien-Marie-François, 1863-

Moores, A. J.

Morse, Alice C. (Alice Cordelia), 1862-1961.

Morton, Max Ralston.

Nadall, B.

Nankivell, Frank A. (Frank Arthur), 1869-1959

Nast, Thomas, 1840-1902.

Newman, Earl, 1930-

Oakley, Violet, 1874-1961.

Orcutt Litho Co.

Outcault, Richard Felton, 1863-1928.

P.F. Collier & Son Corporation.

Parrish, Maxfield, 1870-1966.

Penfield, Edward, 1866-1925.

Porter, Bruce, 1865-1953.

Potthast, Edward Henry, 1857-1927.

Prendergast, Maurice, 1858-1924.

Preston, James M., 1873-1962.

R.H. Russell (Firm)

Rand McNally and Company.

Reed, Ethel, 1874-1912.

Reevs, Geo. M.

Rhead, Louis, 1857-1926.

Rhodes, J. E. (James Edward), 1877-

Rogers, A. P. (Annette Perkins)

Rose, Ethel.

Rosenberg, Henry Mortikar, 1858-1947.

Rubins (Artist)

Sandham, Henry, 1842-1910.

Scotson-Clark, G. F. (George Frederick), 1872-1927.

Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946.

Shafer, L. A. (Leon Alaric), 1866-1940.

Shinn, Florence Scovel, -1940.

Sloan, John, 1871-1951.

Sloan, Marianna, 1875-1954.

Smith, F. Berkeley (Frank Berkeley), 1869-1931.

Sterling Engraving Co.

Sterner, Albert, 1863-1946.

Stone & Kimball.

Suffolk Engraving Co.

Thompson, Mills, 1875-1944.

Turcas, Jules, 1854-1917.

Twachtman, John Henry, 1853-1902.

Wager-Smith, Curtis.

Waterlow and Sons.

Watson, Hy S. (Henry Summer), 1868-1933.

Wells, Ben (Artist)

Wendel, S. Y.

Wenzell, A. B. (Albert Beck), 1864-1917.

Wildhack, Robert, 1881-1940.

Woodbury, Charles H. (Charles Herbert), 1864-1940.

Wright, Charles Hubbard, 1870-1939.

Wright, George Hand, 1872-1951.

Young, Art, 1866-1943.

Zeese-Wilkinson Co.

Artist posters

priJLC_ART_003049

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