THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

Commercial lithography in Wisconsin centered around Milwaukee area where it began in 1852 when Henry Seifert established a plant. Seifert would soon be joined by the Guglers and Jacob Knauber, as the early lithographers of Milwaukee . Jacob Knauber (1846-1905) headed the firm of J. Knauber Lithographing Company from 1867 until his death. Knauber was born in Heidelburg Germany in 1846 and died in Milwaukee in 1905. He became a lithographer and engraver in Milwaukee heading his own firm J. Knauber Lithographing Company from 1867 until his death. He was apprenticed to a lithographer in St Louis at the age of 15. The firm would be incorporated in 1888. Knauber had three sons who also worked at the firm, Arthur, Walter and Richard.

I originally had this group of billheads categorized as "banners" but after looking at all of the banner group I realized that there was a distinct difference. I have decided to label these billheads as ribbons. I know, a sideways award ribbon, but a ribbon nonetheless. I will show off the banners - which typically are wavy and lack the circle top of the ribbon. Notice too that all of these examples are very artistic too.