A Real Team Effort

This information below may sound familiar. I posted about the Horseshoe Curve back in February of this year. Here is the link to that post: https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/2934863145319975648/5578340278373810654 The famous Horseshoe curve on the Pennsilvania Pailroad's four track main line to the West, is still regarded as one of the world's most striking examples of railroad construction work. Located near the centre of the state, about 5 1/2 miles west of Altoona, the view to the south, stretching across Pennsylvania to the East and West incline of the Allagheny Mountains, near the Maryland border, is considered to be the most beautiful and impressive in the state. This website is the official website for the National Historic Landmark: https://www.railroadcity.org/horseshoecurve

Today I would like to focus on the companies involved in getting this post card into the hands of the public. There are three of them, Curt Otto Teich's company, The Minsky Brothers from Pittsburgh, and the United News Company. Each had a unique role to play.

First, it was printed by Curt Otta Teich. This is a "C.T. ART-COLORTONE" card. The process used to print this card was registered by Teich's company with the United States Patent Office. This post card is a sample of, in my opion, one of the finest of the "linen card" era. The texture of the front of the card is amazing; yet, the picture is sharp. The code (8A-H2199) at the top-middle of the card's back tells us that it was printed in 1938. The A tells us that it is from the 1930s and the 8 says specifically 1938. The H tells us that the method used for printing the card was the ART_COLORTONE method. That is the company's logo at bottom-middle of the card's back.

Second, the publisher, the one who asked Curt Otto Teich's company to print the card, was the Minsky Brothers and Company out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This company was around from 1935 to 1948. They published mostly linen cards with pictures of Pennsylvania.

The Third group that had a hand in this post card's existence was the company whose logo is in the bottom, left corner of the back of the post card - partially obscuring the Minsky Brothers name. Based in New York between 1908 and 1969 this was a wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Company they became major distributors of postcards and other printed items through their newsstands at hotels, rail and subway stations. Their cards were published by a variety of different companies including American News, Curt Teich, Robbins Brothers, and Valentine & Sons. Sometimes only their logo appears on a card, but it is often hand stamped on cards not originally published for them. That is the case with today's post card!!