Details
Title Burk & McFetridge
Alternate title Burk & McFetridge Co.
Inquirer Printing Office
Date fl. 1877-1900
Description Burk & McFetridge, the steam power printing, lithography and publishing establishment operated by Pennsylvania natives William M. Burk (ca. 1857-1905) and John R. McFetridge (1844-1903), produced lithographic trade cards, advertisements, book illustrations, pamphlets, calendars and other job printing related material in Philadelphia between 1877 and 1900. Initially colleagues at the Inquirer Printing Office (304 Chestnut Street), where Burk worked as the printer and foreman and McFetridge as a stamp agent, they purchased the printing house from William W. Harding in 1877. The Burk & McFetridge partnership operated from the second and fourth floors of the building until relocating next door to 306-308 Chestnut Street in 1884. In 1893, the firm incorporated and was renamed Burk & McFetridge Co. By 1898, the firm advertised they employed "one hundred and ten hands," one of who two years later caused an investigation by creditors as a result of the embezzlement of funds from the company. The company had total assets valued at between $400,000 and $500,000 at the time. Subsequently, three months after the inquiry, John R. McFetridge withdrew from the firm and legally filed to incorporate a new printing and publishing establishment under the name John R. McFetridge & Sons. McFetridge Sr. died suddenly in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1903, and Burk not long after in 1905. John R. McFetridge & Sons remained in operations until at least 1945
Is part of Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Has format LCP-BurkMcFetridge-Tradecards-P-9111-15.jpg
Call number Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Bibliographic citation Census 1870, 1880, 1900
Engelhardt, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, The Book of Its Bourse & Co-operating Bodies (Philadelphia: Lippincott Press, 1898-99), 273.
Custis, The Public Schools of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Burk & McFetridge Co., 1897), 645
Last, 172
Library Company of Philadelphia research file
Philadelphia Business & City Directories, 1875-1945 (intermittently)
Philadelphia Inquirer, November 20, 1877, November 10, 1884, March 23, 1900, June 19, 1900, June 6, 1903, and September 1, 1905
Image file LCP-BurkMcFetridge-Tradecards-P-9111-15