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 |