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Currier and Ives and the Lawler family
July 15, 2008
More than forty years ago I helped my mom and dad print labels for my father’s insurance company, an annual event where the whole family printed, moistened, and adhered these labels to the top of Currier & Ives calendars my dad bought in bulk. We then set up an assembly line to roll each calendar in a sheet of kraft paper so that my dad could deliver one to each of his clients. We did the printing on a Chandler & Price 8 x 12 hand letterpress, a press bought at auction by my late grandfather.
A typical illustration from a Currier & Ives calendar. Even in the 1960s, these calendar illustrations were printed as stone lithographs by a specialty printer in New York City.
These calendars gave my father a chance to visit each client face to face each year, the delivery of the calendar being his entrée. While there, he would review the client’s policies, check to see if they needed additional coverage, and – if nothing else – say hello and shake their hand. He was an extraordinary, though quiet, salesman and his clients loved him. I remember that they loved getting the beautiful Currier and Ives calendars.
The printing press was, of course, an unimportant part of his insurance business. I am sure he could have had stickers printed commerically with a lot less trouble. But I suspect that the press created an opportunity to see each of his five children face to face at least once each year. It’s a good sales technique.
As a result of this family project we all learned the art of letterpress printing. I am the child who decided to make a career of that experience. My father even offered his insurance business to me when I was a young adult. I turned him down, indicating that I had chosen instead to be a printer. He took the news gracefully, and continued to sell insurance while I learned more about the printing trade.
I used that small letterpress to build a very small business while I was in school, and later added a Multilith offset press and some related equipment. While my high school friends were flipping burgers or mowing lawns, I was working to meet deadlines and produce printed products for a variety of customers.
It was a great introduction to the printing industry. I remember it fondly, and the Chandler & Price press is still nearby. After my father’s death in 1989, my family donated the press to Cal Poly’s Shakespeare Press Museum. And, in a not-too-amazing twist of fate, I am now the faculty advisor of that museum. Anytime I want to visit – or run – my old press it’s just a few minutes away.
Posted by Brian Lawler on July 15, 2008 | Comments (2)
