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Cascade in the Rocky Mountains ....
Published by Gibson and Co. - 1879
Description of Original: Lithograph
33 3/4 x 24 1/2 in.
Gibson's history can be traced to 1850, when George Gibson and his family emigrated to the United States from Scotland, where Gibson had operated a lithographic and copperplate engraving business. The family journeyed to the "land of opportunity" with a small French-made lithography press. In 1850, the Gibson brothers, Stephen, 34, Robert, 18, George, 14, and Samuel, 12, founded Gibson & Company, Lithographers.
Together, the brothers printed bonds, stock certificates, checks, business cards, and labels. From the start, the Gibsons preferred to produce their own goods for sale at retail stores, rather than hiring out their printing services for commercial purposes. Gibson & Co. sold such products as patriotically decorated stationery, Civil War prints, honor and reward cards for schools and Sunday schools, and Valentine novelties, which were marketed through stationery, novelty, and art stores.
During the 1870s, the brothers began "jobbing" other artists' products, such as the popular chromo-litho Currier and Ives prints. The company also jobbed imported German lithographed Christmas cards and oversaw production of the first American line of Christmas, New Year, and Valentine greeting cards, developed by L. Prang & Co., a Boston lithographer, in about 1866. Five years later, Prang had achieved sales of five million such cards a year, and the Gibson brothers were soon designing and making their own line of Christmas cards, Valentines, and Easter novelties.
In 1883, Robert Gibson, the business manager of the four, purchased his brothers' interest in the company, becoming the sole owner of the company until his death two years later. At that time, Robert's will dictated that the business was to be incorporated as The Gibson Art Company, with shares distributed equally to his four children: Charles, Arabella, William, and Edwin.
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