Details
Title Wells & Hope Co.
Date fl. 1870s-1890s
Description Wells & Hope Co., a partnership between John F. Hope (1845-1907) and Joseph Lewis Wells (b. 1836), was a later 19th-century lithographic firm that specialized in metallic signs and advertisements. The firm established ca. 1872 as one of the of the first U.S. manufacturers of decalcomania (i.e., decals) relocated from 115 North Sixth Street to 918 Vine Street in 1875. By the 1880s, the firm engaged in the photomechanical reproduction process of collotypy, was involved in a number of financial suits as claimants for unpaid services, and had been recognized for their photographic and lithographic work at exhibitions, such as the Franklin Institute Exhibition of American Manufacturers (1874) and Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association (1881). The firm was active until the early 1890s.
Hope, a native of Scotland, born September 10, 1845, arrived in Philadelphia in 1852 and worked as a bookkeeper before entering the Wells & Hope partnership. He continued as a printer following its dissolution. He was married to Elizabeth R. (b. 1850) with whom he had daughters Lillie (b. ca. 1871) and Florence (b. 1881). The family resided at 1507 Allegheny Avenue by 1880 and 208 North Forty-Second Street in 1900. Hope was also a member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. He died on November 19, 1907, his late residence at 5155 Wayne Avenue, Germantown.
Wells, was born May 4, 1836 in Mainsburgh, Pa. and described as an inventor in a 1903 family genealogy. By 1870, he and his first wife Caroline Bond (b. ca.. 1845-1871) and son Joseph Herman (b. ca. 1869) lived with his brother Charles family at 1027 Coates Street (20th Ward). He married his second wife, former sister-in-law Margaret Bond in 1875.
Is part of Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Call number Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Bibliographic citation Anthony's Photographic Bulletin (1886): 115-116
Boughton, Genealogy of the Families of John Rockwell (1903), 404
Census 1870, 1880, 1900
Fourteenth Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association (1881), 41-42
Library Company of Philadelphia research file
Philadelphia Business and City Directories 1869-1890
Philadelphia Inquirer, November 21, 1907
Printers Circular (October 1875): 210