Carqueville, Edward

Edward Carqueville (September 23, 1841 - March 21, 1898) was a German-American lithographer and printer, and reportedly was a direct descendant of Martin Luther. Born in Posen, Poland (then part of Germany), and arrived in the United States in 1856 with his French-German parents. He began learning the lithographic trade sometime after arriving in the U.S., likely from Charles Shober (1820 - 1906), another German immigrant. By 1863 Carqueville was working with the Chicago Lithographing Company operated by Louis Kurz. Carqueville remained with the firm after Kurz left following the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 and Charles Shober replaced him. In 1877 the firm's name changed to Shober and Carqueville Lithographing Company. Shober and Carqueville became known for trade cards and advertising posters and after 1880 they became a major supplier of circus and theatrical posters. Shober left the firm in the mid-1880s but Carqueville remained and changed the firm's name to the Carqueville Lithographing Company in 1896. After Carqueville's death in 1898, his four sons ran the firm until they sold it to the Theodore A. Schmidt Lighographing Company around 1915. Over the course of his career as a lithographer, Carqueville's business burned to the ground three times, including the 1871 fire. Nonetheless, every time he rebuilt and became one of the most prominent lithographers in Chicago. He was married when he died and had eight children, seven sons and one daughter.