Pennsylvania State College / Pennsylvania State University Postcards

Penn State is well represented on postcards although the majority features specific classroom buildings and dormitories or Penn State icons such as the Nittany Lion Shrine, Old Main and Beaver Stadium.  Postcards produced prior to 1954 are imprinted for the Pennsylvania State College; postcards produced after 1954 reflect the change to university status and the resulting name change.  Publishers identified by name are the major players in the Penn State story; other smaller firms or individual names may be found in the checklist.

The earliest postcards are non-divided backs and were mainly published by merchants in State College and Bellefonte.  They were followed in turn by a far greater number of divided back format postcards by local merchants including The Athletic Store, the latter using multiple national printing houses for production purposes.  One series printed for The Athletic Store by Commercial Color Card Co. in their CommercialChrome format saw an identical set appear bearing an imprint for J.A. Gardner Importing in nearby Tyrone.  Gardner’s series bear CommercialChrome production numbers; most but not all of The Athletic Store series do not.

The white border era saw a great reduction in number of postcards produced with only The Athletic Store remaining active.  The coming of the linen era saw a renewed interest in postcards produced with numbered sets issued by E.C. Kropp of Milwaukee, Ramsey Mebane of Wilkes-Barre, J.P. Walmer of Harrisburg and the Progressive News Agency located in State College itself.  A fifth numbered set also exists without publisher imprint and resembles postcards of the Progressive News Agency but subject content for specific numbers do not match.  Identity of the publishing company remains unknown to me.

The linen era was followed in turn by an outpouring of black and white printed postcards by a number of local publishers that used the Albertype Company for printing with both black and white and sepia toned produced.  Harry Whitman from Canton, Pennsylvania also entered the Penn State market with an extensive array of his Whitman’s Phototypes line in Collotype format.  These postcards also exist in small packet miniature format.  The first and only appearance of W.B. Keeler’s Book Store as a postcard publisher was in this time period and featured a number of attractive views printed by the Curt Teich Corporation in Chicago.  Views are black and white or duotone images, the latter adding more depth to the image by combining two colors of ink.  Finally, the era is also represented by postcards bearing the imprint of Meriden Gravure from Meriden, Connecticut and Albertypes of the Nittany Lion Inn printed for both the Hart Hotel Service and L.G. Treadway again in both black and white and sepia formats.

Change in production processes and publishers came with the widespread use of regular size color chrome postcards following the end of World War II.  Penn State postcards in this format were produced from about 1950 through approximately 1965 when Continentals made their first appearance.

First of the new publishers was Bill Coleman and his Lion’s Den Photo Studio located in downtown State College on Beaver Avenue.  His postcards bear either his own name or a Bill Coleman’s Lion’s Studio imprint with just about all printed by Dexter Press with Dexter Press production numbers.  Coverage was local in scope with Penn State subjects again mainly being campus architecture.

The second and most prolific of early publishers was Richard C. Miller’s Modern-Ad Company from Butler, Pennsylvania.  Miller fully documented the northwestern quadrant of Pennsylvania beginning in the late 1940s.  His postcards are easily identifiable by his flying goose imprint with the direction of flight (left or right) and color (green, blue or black) also helpful in identifying the national company that printed his lineup. 

The majority of Modern-Ad chrome postcards features a green goose flying right and was printed by Kobbel in New Jersey whose reverse side format for years was always done in green ink.  The 5 or 6 digit number is Kobbel’s number in order of production. A blue goose flying left was the product of the International Card Company in Chicago and again have a company production number prefixed with a letter S.  A third major printer in later years was Johnson Litho Graphics in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and their postcards are recognized by inclusion of a black goose again flying right.  Johnson numbers are prefixed with the letter J (usually found in the stamp box) and some may also contain a second number prefixed MA for Modern-Ad.  The MA numbering system was instituted as Modern-Ad began the change from regular size to continental size formats.

Miller or possibly Kobbel may well have discontinued use of green ink by this time as newer Kobbel postcards were also now appearing with a black goose flying right with a fairly high Kobbel number although a handful of low numbers suggests that some images were reprinted.  Miller made very limited use of Dexter Press and the couple of examples seen to date bear no goose imprint.

Finally, there are a handful of postcards that exist in regular size chrome format by misc. publishers. 

Footnotes…..Continentals by Richard Miller and others are not included at this time as much more indexing work is first necessary.  Finally, I was saddened to learn that Richard Miller passed away in 2012 at age 90 and Bill Coleman passed away in 2014 at age 88.  Both were very active at the time that I attended Penn State and their many postcards truly document the Penn State that I so warmly remember.