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Enquirer Printing Co. records

 Collection
Identifier: Wing-Modern-MS-Enquirer

Scope and Content of the Collection

Correspondence with circuses that were clients of the Enquirer Printing Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio.

There are incoming letters (on a variety of colorful circus letterheads) with attached carbon copies of outgoing letters and a few enclosures. There are also photocopies of ledger sheets from the 1920s concerning the company’s printing for theater companies. Some 38 circuses are represented. There are particularly long runs of letters to/from the Al G. Kelly & Miller Bros. Circus (1948-1968), the Carson & Barns Circus (1958-1970) and the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus (1961-1978). Several other circuses are represented by runs of a decade or more. The letters largely concern orders for posters, handbills, small advertisements, tickets, business cards and the like, including a few orders for letterheads. But a fair amount of other circus lore is also included: news about animal purchases and new acts (requiring new or changing art work), allusions to financial successes or more often straits (with requests for extended payment or credit), remarks on competition between circuses, and general circus gossip. Actual descriptions of art work are rare, but there are some fascinating specific cases; many of the orders refer to stock art work that can be identified in the thousands of printing blocks now at the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. The ledger sheets include information on posters for touring companies that offered musical revues, vaudeville and minstrel shows, and a few dramatic productions.

Dates

  • Creation: 1922-1979

Creator

Language

Materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

The Enquirer Printing Co. records are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).

Ownership and Literary Rights

The Enquirer Printing Co. records are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections at reference@newberry.org.

History of the Enquirer Printing Co.

Cincinnati, Ohio, printing company.

Enquirer Printing Co. was a small printing company specializing in printing for entertainment industries and located in Cincinnati, OH. The records in this collection came from the files of office manager Harry C. Anderson.

Extent

0.8 Linear Feet (2 boxes)

Abstract

Chiefly correspondence between the Enquirer Printing Co. and the circuses for which it printed between 1948 and 1978. There are also photocopies of some ledger sheets from the 1920s concerning shipments to theater companies.

Organization

Papers are organized in the following series:

Series 1: Circus Correspondence, 1948-1979
Boxes 1-2
Series 2: Ledger sheets, 1922-1923
Box 2

Collection Stack Location

4a 28 1

Provenance

Gift of the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum, 2016.

Processed by

Paul Gehl, Mette Shayne and Robert Williams, 2016.

Title
Inventory of the Enquirer Printing Co. records, 1922-1979
Status
Completed
Author
Paul F. Gehl
Date
©2016.
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the The Newberry Library - Modern Manuscripts and Archives Repository

Contact:
60 West Walton Street
Chicago Illinois 60610 United States
312-255-3512