Milwaukee Lithographing and Engraving Company

Milwaukee Lithographing and Engraving Company (c. 1872 - 1920) was a printing company based in its namesake city that is often considered to be the first modern printer in Milwaukee. The firm was founded by the German-born Henry Seifert (1824 - 1911), who had worked as a lithographer and printer for several years before immigrating to Milwaukee in 1852 and founding his own firm, 'H. Seifert, Lith.,' which produced bank notes, stationary, advertising cards, and the like. Seifert entered into several partnerships in the following years, the first being in 1856 with the Austrian-born artist Louis Kurz (1834 - 1921), who went on to become a partner in one of the major lithographic publishers of the late 19th century, Chicago-based Kurz and Allison. The Seifert-Kurz partnership was short lived and might have overlapped with Seifert's partnership with engraver James Lawton. In 1872, Lawton left to join the Western Bank Note and Engraving Co. in Chicago. From 1869, Seifert employed a talented young German-born engraver and printer named Julius Gugler. In 1871, Julius was joined by his father Henry, who had already had a long career in the field, and in 1872, Seifert and the Guglers founded the Milwaukee Lithographing and Engraving Company. They also look to have established a separate firm in 1875 called Seifert, Gugler, and Co. aiming to print public documents for the City of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin, but this firm stopped operating after 1878. In 1876, the Milwaukee Lithographing and Engraving Co. constructed a three-story plant in downtown Milwaukee; by this time, they operated three state-of-the-art steam presses alongside sixteen hand presses. In 1878, the Guglers left to found their own firm, first as Henry Gugler and Sons and then the Gugler Lithographic Co. after Henry's death in 1880. The Gugler Lithographic Co. went on to great successes and only closed in 2005. As for the Milwaukee Lithographing and Engraving Co., it was noted in documents of the late 19th century as part of the Seifert Press, suggesting a subsidiary status. Fred Brosius (1851 - 1909), twin brother of viewmaker Herman Brosius (1851 - 1917), became president of the Milwaukee Lithographing and Engraving Co. when Seifert retired in 1898 and the company continued to operate until the late 1910s. Some obituaries of Henry Seifert credited him with operating 'the first lithographing plant in the West.'