The Krebs Lithographing Company are
situated in the Carlisle Building, on the corner of Fourth and Walnut
Streets. The “Carlisle” is one of the finest buildings of the
city, and Krebs Company occupy two of the large floors of the
building. Their establishment is replete with the best
lithographing and printing machinery, and their work includes every
variety of lithographic and chrome-lithographic productions: Bonds,
Checks, Drafts, Diplomas, etc. In fine color printing the firm
ranks second to none in America. Their business extends over a
territory which includes almost every State in the Union.
The members of the firm are Adolph Krebs, W. D. Henderson, and F.
Veigel.
Lithography is the art of drawing or engraving upon stone designs, from
which impressions can be taken on paper. It is a branch of
engraving, and an important one, since it has, to a great extent,
superseded engraving on steel and copper, particularly for maps, plans,
and commercial purposes. Its comparative cheapness—the cost being
only one-third that of engraving upon metal—commends it to general use;
and with the advance in the art, designs are not produced which are
very little inferior to the best specimens of wood and steel engraving
of the same class. The first specimen or lithography executed in
the United States was published in the Analectic Magazine for July,
1819. In the same year discoveries of a white stone, suitable for
the work, were made in Indiana.
The stone used is a light-colored yellow or blue-gray calcareous
limestone, the best of which comes from Bavaria, though they are found
in France; and an excellent stone has been brought from Cape
Giarardeau, in Missouri.
It is almost impossible to estimate too highly the value of the work
done by lithography in popularizing art among the people. A
lithograph enters thousands of homes where, in its absence, the cost of
steel or copper would necessarily leave the walls bare and
unadorned. To the business world its benefits have been literally
inestimable. The have been adapted with the most wonderful
exactitude and speedy execution to the demands of the railway, the
steamship, the factory, and the counting-house, and nearly nine-tenths
of the illustrations we see placarded in railway waiting rooms, hotels,
and other places of public resort, are the product of
lithography. By its means the manufacturer or the common carrier
are enabled, with but little expense, to place before the public such
specimens of their work, or views on their route, which would be
impossible upon wood or metal.
Excerpt from the
1875 Kenny’s
Illustrated Cincinnati; page 174
Note: There was no illustration of the building with this article.