Printer Louis Prang Issued ‘Checks’

Printer Louis Prang Issued ‘Checks’

This article was originally printed in Bank Note Reporter.
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The failure of the national government to expeditiously circulate its Postage Currency as a remedy for the hoarded fractional silver coinage in 1862 led to a myriad of private and municipal scrip issues to supply the crying want for small change.

As detailed in this series, this need for these fractional coinage substitutes—that was acknowledged to be widespread by summer 1862—persisted for many months, even into winter 1862-1863. The want of small change was so chronic in Boston, in fact, that days after Christmas 1862 local printer Louis Prang advertised for additional job work printing these paper promises to pay.

On Dec. 29, Prang, a well-known engraver and lithographer who specialized in cartes de visite, salon prints and maps, published the following ad in a local newspaper:

“Financial.
SMALL CURRENCY
Manufactured at short notice, in most elegant
Style at moderate prices, by
L. PRANG & CO.
General Engravers and Lithographers,
Dec. 29 1s10t 109 Washington street, Boston”

Prang’s small currency bills were somewhat unique from other scrip put out by printers such as his local competitor John H. Bufford. Prang caged some of his emissions as “checks” in an attempt to skirt the federal legislation outlawing private money issues that had been passed when the national government went into the scrip-issuing business.

Featured prominently on these small notes was the legend, “Memorandum Check when out of change,” in two lines. This no doubt was to dodge the provisions of the Act of July 17, 1862 monetizing “postage and other stamps,” the second section of which ostensibly outlawed private and corporate scrip which would compete with the small change notes authorized by Congress.

Section two of the legislation read: “And be it further enacted, That from and after the first day of August, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, no private corporation, banking association, firm or individual shall make, issue, circulate, or pay any note, check, memorandum, token or other obligation for a less sum than one dollar, intended to circulate as money, or to be received or used in lieu of lawful money of the United States, and every person so offending shall, on conviction thereof in any district or circuit court of the United States, be punished by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or by both, at the option of the court.”

Lithographer Louis Prang

American lithographer, printer and publisher Louis Prang had been born March 12, 1824, in Breslau, Prussian Silesia. Due to poor health, the young Louis failed to receive much outside schooling and consequently spent a great deal of time in his father’s textile factory learning engraving and dyeing and printing. Coming of age, Prang traveled around Bohemia working in additional printing and textile establishments.

In 1850 he immigrated to the United States as a refugee during the revolutionary period on the continent. Stateside, he pursued his trade producing wood engravings for a succession of magazine publishers, including Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly, and Gleason’s Magazine. He settled in Boston where in 1856 he formed Prang & Mayer with Julius (Joseph) Mayer to produce lithographs.

In 1860 he bought out his partner and restyled the company as L. Prang & Co., specializing in colored printing, especially trade cards, announcements and various forms of advertising. With the coming of armed conflict in the United States, Prang’s firm added maps, which it successfully marketed to various periodicals during the Civil War. He also published a wide variety card-sized engraved prints of famous people of the day.

In 1864 Prang returned to Europe to learn the latest German printing techniques. Upon his return to the states, he supplied the color plates for Clement C. Moore’s classic A Visit from St. Nicholas published that year, and later commenced publishing color reproductions of famous works of art for the parlors and salons of the aspiring middle class. He styled these chromolithographs as “Prang’s American Chromos: ‘The Democracy of Art,’” and issued about 800 different prints at about $10 each.

“Our Chromo Prints are absolute FACSIMILES [emphasis in the original]of the originals, in color,” Prang stressed, “which hitherto adorned only the parlors of the rich.” Prang modeled the paintings of many famous American artists, including Albert Bierstadt, Winslow Homer, Eastman Johnson, Thomas Moran, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, and Frederick S. Church, as well as classical European Old Masters. The company also published color-tinted street scenes and 18 Civil War scenes of historical merit suitable for display as well.

In addition to publishing card-sized images and these large art prints, L. Prang & Co. published a variety of illustrated, specialty instructional books. He also launched a magazine, Prang’s Chromo: A Journal of Popular Art. “More than any other print publisher,” according to an art dealer, “Prang created the market for chromolithographs in America, and his work was highly influential on firms around the country.”

In 1873 Prang revolutionized the holiday season by introducing a series of excellently printed color Christmas greetings cards at the Vienna Exposition and first sold in England. The following year, he brought this innovation of sending colorful cards to one’s friends at the Christmas season to the American marketplace. He therefore is often called the “Father of the American Christmas card.”

Prang’s cards were printed from a series of from eight to 32 metal plates instead of a lithographic stone, yielding supremely high quality. Each year he sponsored a contest with cash prizes for new Christmas card designs, enticing original artwork from artists of the caliber of Thomas Moran and Will H. Low. Today these early Prang Christmas cards are in high demand from collectors.

With the success of this venture, L. Prang & Co. branched out into Valentine’s Day cards in the early 1880s, birthday cards, and additional greetings cards, which also are highly prized today in the collector marketplace. The company also printed custom apparel labels. His factory in Roxbury became a tourist mecca where Prang often conducted tours personally.

In the 1890s Prang’s expensive Christmas cards were crowded out of the marketplace by cheaply-produced foreign (mostly German) imports. In 1897 (one account says 1892) L. Prang & Co. merged to form Taber-Prang Co. and removed to Springfield, Mass. Prang was very interested in art instruction. He authored The Prang Method of Art Instruction, and Prang’s Aids for Objective Teaching. He founded the Prang Educational Co. to publish drawing books for schools, introduced non-toxic water colors for children, and formed a foundation to support art instruction education.

Prang retired in 1899 and died a decade later on Sept. 14, 1909, while on vacation in Los Angeles. Another account says he died in a sanitarium, where he had presumably gone for health reasons. In 1918 American Crayon Co. purchased the company that Prang had founded. Today the successor company is owned by Dixon Ticonderoga Co.

For his considerable achievements, immigrant Prang’s name is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty, along with other refugees who “made good” and contributed to their new adopted land in significant ways. An archive of Louis Prang materials has been established at the Winterthur Library, Winterthur, Del. In 1975 the U.S. Post Office issued a stamp commemorating an early Christmas Card by Louis Prang.

Prang’s Merchant Scrip

The most commonly seen Civil War merchant scrip printed by Prang within numismatic circles are the very common Mount Pleasant Apothecary Store scrip issued in denominations of five cents and 20 cents (other denominations are possible). This scrip was circulated by 19th-century numismatist W. Elliot Woodward issue-dated Jan. 1, 1863. Issued notes bear his numismatically significant autograph in ink. Woodward (1825-92) conducted 112 numismatic sales from 1860-90, according to research by Martin Gengerke. He was a member of the Boston Numismatic Society.

Notes bear a vignette of a two-story, L-shaped, wood-frame structure that is presumably Woodwards’s shop on Eustis Street in Roxbury, Mass. All four corners bear Prang’s distinctive ornamentation. Also, the signature block is ruled to prevent alteration, which seems overkill on an inexpensively-produced small denomination note.

More significant for the present discussion is that these notes are labeled “Check” and additionally bear the disclaimer: “This is not Currency, but a memorandum for change” in a panel box under the store vignette at left. The redemption clause states: “Redeemable in currency funds in sums of one or more Dollars as above, or at the Book Store of W.H. Piper & Co., 133 Washington Street, Boston.”

As stated, these notes are very common, and must have been issued in great profusion during the tail end of the small change crisis in Boston in early 1863. A quick survey, by no means comprehensive nor scientific, reveals that numbered, signed and issued (circulated) five-cent notes are decidedly uncommon (with highest observed serial number only up to 69), and numbered, signed and issued (circulated) 20-cent notes bear serial numbers up to 59, 91, 622, 720. There are also a quantity of numbered but unsigned remainders, and any number of unissued, unsigned remainders, especially 20-centers.

Roxbury druggist Woodward was not the only respondent to Prang’s newspaper ad. Prang also printed “Memorandum Checks” for a handful of other local businesses. Whereas the Mount Pleasant Apothecary Store issue was a custom printing job, Prang devised a stock format that likely was a cheaper alternative for these additional frugal Yankee businessmen.

Unfortunately no catalog of Massachusetts scrip exists, so determining the extent of Prang’s output is somewhat problematical. My comments below should be understood to be provisional and only based on items that I have observed, so may make this presentation far from comprehensive.

Known Prang “Memorandum Checks” printed in this stock format were issued by at least eight Boston-area merchants in denominations of one cent, two cents, three cents, four cents and 10 cents. All seen are printed in one color, green or black ink only. Redemption legend reads “Good for ____ cents current funds when presented in even dollars.”

Observed, and with my proviso as stated, I note the following:

• Unissued remainder with no merchant imprint three cents, green, “Memorandum Check” by L. Prang & Co. in a 2003 Early American History Auctions sale.
• C.B. Faunce, Boston, five cents, green, “Memorandum Check” by L. Prang & Co. in ANS Collection.
• “Joseph Hooker” signed, (Boston), three cents, black, “Memorandum Check” by L. Prang & Co. in a 2002 Heritage Auctions sale.
• Luther Hill, Lawrence, Mass., 10 cents, color unknown, “Memorandum Check” in a Spink 2012 sale.
• Page & Puffer, Boston, three cents, green, No. 329, “Memorandum Check” by L. Prang & Co. in 2003 Heritage Auctions sale.
• Page & Puffer, Boston, four cents, green, No. 263, “Memorandum Check” by L. Prang & Co. in 2003 Heritage Auctions sale.
• Page & Puffer, Boston, four cents, green, No. 1435, “Memorandum Check” by L. Prang & Co. in ANS Collection.
• Salom’s Bazaar, Boston, one cents, two cents, three cents, Nos. 844, 948, 997, black, black, green, “Memorandum Check” by L. Prang & Co. in a 2003 Heritage Auctions sale.
• Canceled T.P. Williams, Boston, four cents, green,”Memorandum Check” by L. Prang & Co. in XXXX Heritage Auctions sale.
• W.P. Marshall, Boston, three cents, green, “Memorandum Check” by L. Prang & Co. in a 2006 R.M. Smythe sale.
• White’s House, Boston, three cents, green, No. 175, “Memorandum Check” by L. Prang & Co. at sellitstore.
• White’s House, Boston, three cents, green, No. 107, “Memorandum Check” by L. Prang & Co. in 2003 Heritage Auctions sale (also five cent and 10 cent remainders improbably signed).

Personality Notes

Prang also printed merchant scrip for an additional dozen (or more) merchants with personality portrait vignettes such as George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. Prang first issued such notes on his own account, headed “L. Prang & Co.’s Lithographic Establishment,” issued-dated Nov. 1, 1862. Shown are two such notes (10 cent and 25 cent notes) with portraits of military officers “redeemable in U.S. Notes in sums of One dollar and upwards.”

Its back, printed in green, advertises Prang’s specialties “designers and practical lithographers” and “general prinht publishers” in medallions, and “L. Prang & Co’s Establishment for Fashionable Card Engraving & Printing,” including Mourning Cards, Wedding Cards, envelopes, &c. “in the latest Parisian styles at very moderate prices.” Location listed is 109 Washington Street in Boston.

One of the notes shown, which appeared in a Heritage Auctions sale, is issued and signed in an engraved facsimile “L. Prang & Co.” and was mounted in a album with paste. Its serial number is 194, indicating an extensive issue was possible. Another shown is a similar 25-cent note, numbered 165 with another distinguished gentleman depicted, that belonged to Tom Denly. Notes are approximately 4 1/8 by 2 1/4 inches. Other Prang advertising notes of this style are likely, but frankly unknown to the present writer, who would appreciate readers cluing him in on this matter further.

Who Are They?

Neither of the men shown on the two Prang notes are Louis Prang himself, so who are the individuals shown on these Prang personality scrip?

Portraits such as the officer shown on the note Prang issued for his own shop and on other such notes he printed for his merchant clients, however, have kept collectors guessing identities for as long as I have been in this hobby, and no doubt longer even than that.

Identifications given in Internet auctions, on dealers’ websites, in dealers’ sales literature, auction catalogs and/or written on currency holders observed at various show bourses are often general or non-specific. Usually portraits are identified generically, i.e., “distinctive female portrait,” or “Union general.” Worse yet are the venturesome guesses of identity that I have observed, such as “portrait of Mrs. Lincoln.” (It wasn’t.)

Recently I came across an important document that provides the key to the identity of many of these 19th-century personalities, specifically 35 of the Union generals and other officers, some of whom are shown on these personality notes. The “Rosetta Stone” for Prang Civil War scrip is a large 50-cent lithograph. In 1862 Louis Prang published a black and white lithograph titled “Union Liberty Strength Heroes of the War 1861 and 1862.” The overall image is about 45 cm by 35 cm on a sheet approximately 51 cm by 40.5 cm. [See p. 74.]

Portraits on the lithograph include Gen. Winfield Scott, Col. Edward D. Baker, Gen. James Shields, Gen. Daniel Butterfield, Gen. George B. McClellan, Gen. John E. Wool, Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth, Gen. Henry W. Slocum, Gen. Franz Sigel, Gen. Henry W. Halleck, Gen. Joseph K.F. Mansfield, Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, Gen. William B. Franklin, Col. John Slocum, Gen. John A. Dix, Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, Comm. Andrew H. Foote, Gen. Erasmus D. Keyes, Col. Michael Corcoran, Gen. John Charles Frémont, Gen. Joseph Hooker, Gen. A. Porter, Gen. Abram Duryee, Gen. Silas Casey, Gen. Israel B. Richardson, Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks, Gen. Samuel P. Heintzelman, Gen. John W. Sprague, Gen. Robert Anderson, and Gen. George W. Morell.

The portrait lithograph was issued to tout a larger work, historian-editor Dean Dudley’s 148-page, 50-cent volume Officers of our Union Army and Navy. Their Lives, Their Portraits. Vol. 1, published by Prang in 1862. The book’s title page lists Prang’s address as 34 Merchants Row, Boston, and 20 West Seventh Street, Washington, D.C. It also lists R.R. Landon, 120 Lake Street, Chicago as “agent.”

Dudley’s book provides a chronology of the first year of the war through General U.S. Grant’s victory at Fort Donelson in Tennessee in February 1862, and biographies and portraits of 30 of the Union “heroes.” The book was also a showcase for Prang’s personality portraiture. Every biography was illustrated, but not every “hero” shown on the large Prang lithograph had a biography in the volume.

Publisher Prang sold the volume in two editions: 50 cents in imitation Morocco, and 75 cents “in gilt edge, elegant and substantial.” He predicted a great market for Dudley and his series of books, and touted the first volume for its economical value “considering the interesting character…[that] bespeak for it peculiar favor and an extensive demand from all parts of the country.” Doubtless those who didn’t appear in the first volume of the anticipated series would have been covered in volume 2, however I have been unable to discover whether that volume was ever actually published. So the venture may have proven less successful than anticipated.

In the back of the book, Prang ran ads offering his services and touting his expertise, as befits the publisher of the volume. In one such notice, Prang advertises “PORTRAITS Lithographed to order in Every Style on reasonable terms.”

In another, he offers up his “Classified List of L. Prang & Co.’s Publications,” including Prang’s Card-Portraits of prominent Characters, Men of the Times. “This is truly a publication for the people, comprising as it does, already, over one hundred portraits of noted persons, and daily increasing in number by new engravings.” My own collection includes many such Abe Lincoln “card-portraits” by Prang several of which are shown, including one that is the same Prang portrait utilized on his merchant scrip.

Prang saw his role much the same as proprietors of TMZ or People magazine do today. He was delivering excellent likenesses from life so the masses could see the popular government, military, literary, and thespian figures of their day. He published carte de visite-sized likenesses that people admired, collected, and inserted in the popular albums of the day, also “suitable for enclosing in a common letter envelope as a present to friends at a distance.”

Anyone familiar today with the culture of the Civil War era has experienced the real or imitation leather-covered, extended family albums that most families of any means kept that included family portraits as well as Prang-style card images of the popular figures of the day. Oftentimes these supplementary images were card photographs produced by Appleton, E. Anthony, Mathew Brady or a local photographic dealer, but Prang’s inexpensive 10-cent engraved CDVs were also popular with the “folks” of the period. Prang also sold bulk orders to dealers at 20 copies for a dollar.

In addition Prang’s advertisements offered “quarto portraits of Distinguished Men of the Times, executed in crayon” at 25 cents each, a 19 x 24 “artistic and ornamental picture” titled “The First Martyrs” combining portraits of “Ellsworth, Whitney, Ladd, and Needham, the first who fell in defence (sic) of the Union in the present war” for 75 cents, and a third personality engraving “Defenders of our Union,” depicting collective pictures of nine prominent men on one plate for a quarter dollar.

Prang & Co.’s product line early in the war also included a number of colored images familiar to collectors today, including a handsome color-tinted engraving of Abraham Lincoln’s house in Springfield, IL at a quarter, a facsimile of the Declaration of Independence, also at 25 cents, and Prang’s “Family Record of American Allegiance” in two sizes, 25- and 50 cents.

Of course today, Louis Prang is most noted for his large 18- x 20-inch chromolithographs of contemporary historic scenes that he originally sold for the large price of a dollar, such as “The Old Dock Square Warehouse in Boston, including part of Fanueil Hall and Quincy Market.” Prang also offered a variety of miscellaneous publications and maps illustrating the various military campaigns and seats of the war.

The publisher solicited dealers by offering liberal discounts “to the trade.” “Agents are wanted,” he wrote, “who will undertake to sell our publications in all parts of the country.”

Personality Scrip Customers

A curious feature of the Prang note as will be seen in the enlarged photograph shown is a 2/5ths of an inch “tab” at the right side advertising “Checks in this style manufactured at very moderate prices, by L. Prang & Co., 34 Merchants Row.” Prang’s format and pitch proved popular.

Notes of this general style but without the tab, 3 7/8 inch by 2 1/4 inch, are known for at least a dozen merchants (often in multiple denominations with varying portraits) in Boston and surrounding communities (and as far away as Vermont) in various fractional currency amounts redeemable in current bank bills (with one exception noted), including:

• A. Nye & Co., dealers in West India Goods, Provisions, & c., corner of Main & Shore Streets, Falmouth, Mass., issue-dated Jan. 1, 1863.
• (Augustine) Anezin & (John) Horan’s Restaurant, 3&4 Court Square, Boston, issue-dated Nov. 1, 1862.
• Atwood’s Oyster House, 2 Bowdoin Square, Boston, issue-dated Nov. 1, 1862.
• C.S. Seaver, (occupation unlisted), Bartons Landing, Vt., undated.
• Congress House, 45 Congress Street, Boston, issue-dated Jan. 1, 1863.
• F. Fletcher, dealer in English & Fancy Goods, Reading, Mass. and 100 Hanover St., Boston, issue-dated Jan. 1, 1863.
• John J. Bohler Tobacco & Cigar Store, 94 Main Street, Charlestown, Mass., issue-dated Dec. 29, 1862.
• New York Oyster Co., 119 Merrimac & 57 Portland Streets, Boston, issue-dated Dec. 29, 1862. • Parks House, 185 & 187 Washington Street, Boston, issue-dated Nov. 1, 1862. (two styles noted, one payable in current bank bills, and the other payable in U.S. Notes)
• S[imon]. Cohen & Co., Dealers in Trimmings, Worsteds, &c., 291½ Washington Street, Boston, issue-dated Jan. 1, 1863.
• Storage Warehouse Co., Nos. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 & 20 Lewis Wharf, Boston, issue-dated Dec. 18, 1862.
• Vinson Blanchard’s Provision Market, Arlington, Mass., issue-dated Dec. 29, 1862.

AbeBook 2 is Now Available

I’m happy to say that Whitman Publishing has now brought out a sequel to our 2009 book for the Abraham Lincoln bicentennial. The new opus is titled Abraham Lincoln, Beyond the American Icon, and is a true sequel on all counts. The book is entirely full color, 464 pages, with all new images (more than 1,400) and entirely new text that allows me to expand upon my themes from the first AbeBook. What is most astounding (to me at least) is that the book is modestly priced at $29.95 retail.

Readers of this publication will be most interested I expect in my graphic explanation of the importance of numismatic imagery in helping to create the Old Abe legacy in making Lincoln the iconic figure in history that he has become. There’s lots of good paper money, stock, bond, check and other financial paper shown in the new book that you will not find shown elsewhere. Interested readers can purchase the book at numismatic book dealers, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com or the publisher’s website whitman.com where discounts are generally available. Or if you want, you can purchase an autographed copy direct from yours truly for full retail plus postage, but in addition to one great autograph (personalized if you desire) I’ll throw in a 100+ year-old check I’ll throw in a 100+ year old check from Lincoln National Bank to the first 100 respondents. Email me at [email protected] for full details.

A Personal Note

As always, I welcome feedback from BNR readers. We cover a lot of ground in this column, and it’s surprising what sparks the interest of individuals, as evidenced by the comments received.

Questions, comments, cheers or jeers are welcome. You can contact me through my personal website www.fredwritesright.com or by mail at P.O. Box 118162, Carrollton, TX 75011-8162. If you write and wish a reply, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope, but please be aware that if your subject is of interest generally it may be addressed in a future column instead.