Schmidt, Max Heinrich William (sold) (Max Schmidt)

Max Heinrich William Schmidt (February 17, 1850 - May 22, 1936) was a German-American engraver, lithographer, and publisher. Born in Schaemhaum, Germany, Schmidt left home at 14 when he chose to go to sea as a cabin boy instead of pursuing a career in medicine, as was family tradition. He spent the next 7 years traveling the world and developed his artistic skills aboard ship, keeping a meticulously lettered logbook. He arrived in San Francisco in 1871 and left his ship. First finding work in a restaurant, Schmidt soon began working for San Francisco lithographers, and spent the next three years working for Korbell Brothers, Grafton, T. Brown (San Francisco's only African American lithographer), and other San Francisco firms and engravers. He set up his own shop in 1874, called Schmidt and Buehler, in partnership with Frederick Buehler. They made pictorial cuts for local newspapers. Schmidt was on his own two years later, working under the name M. Schmidt and Company and producing stock certificates and colored lithographic labels. Schmidt incorporated the firm in 1883 under the name Schmidt Label and Lithographic Company. His factory burned in 1884 and again in 1886. In 1899, Schmidt acquired the lithographic firm Dickman-Jones and H.S. Crocker's label department and formed a new firm called the Mutual Label Company and Lithographic Company. In the early 1900s, Schmidt expanded to Los Angeles, when the Los Angeles Lithographic Company and the Western Lithograph Company became associated with Mutual. In 1906, the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire destroyed his company. He soon rebuilt and named the new firm the Schmidt Lithograph Company. Under this imprint, he printed all of Harrison Godwin's (1899 - 1984) famous pictorial maps. Schmidt continued to find success, and eventually expanded to Southern California, Texas, Utah, the Pacific Northwest, Florida, and Honolulu, making labels for producers and packers in all these areas. Although the firm did produce posters, booklets, and other forms of commercial lithography, it mainly focused on labels. The Stecher-Traung Company bought Schmidt Lithograph in 1966 and formed Stecher-Truang-Schmidt, which operated until 1994.