My list of publishers - check in regularly as I will update

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Eyre & Spottiswode

Sadly no longer in existence, Eyre & Spottiswoode had a long and illustrious history. Founded in 1739 in London by a Scotsman, William Strahan who forged for his business a national and even transatlantic reputation with a distinguished list of clients and correspondents. In 1755 the firm printed Dr Johnson's English Dictionary. Strahan's correspondents included the Wesley brothers and the American statesman, Benjamin Franklin. In 1770, with Charles Eyre, Strahan purchased the patent of King's Printer (subsequently renewed by his successors) to run for 30 years. This separate business was known as Eyre and Strahan, afterwards Eyre and Spottiswoode, well known for printing parliamentary publications such as the Statutes at Large series. From 1878 Eyre and Spottiswoode began producing Greeting cards (mainly Christmas and New Year) on a grand scale. They later became part of Associated Book Publishers and merged with Methuen and Co in the 1970s.

Gibson
The history of Gibson Greetings, Inc. began in Scotland, where George Gibson operated a lithographic and copperplate engraving business. In 1850, he emigrated with his family to the United States and four of his sons settled in Cincinnati, where they founded Gibson & Company, Lithographers. They began their business selling stationary, business cards, labels, and other printed items.

At first, they preferred to sell products of their own design directly to retail stores instead of printing other companies’ designs. However, in the 1860s and 1870s, the brothers began printing other artists’ work, including the first American Christmas card line, developed by L. Prang & Co., a Boston lithography company. Soon, the brothers began printing their own greeting card designs.

In 1883, Robert Gibson bought out his brothers and became the business’s sole owner, but he passed away only two years later. In his will, Robert left the company to his four children, who changed the company’s name to the Gibson Art Company.

WWI created an opportunity for the Gibson Art Company to fill a void left by European greeting card manufacturers. During WWI, greeting cards exploded in popularity as people wished to keep in touch with loved ones overseas. Additionally, European manufacturing capabilities were devastated by war, so Gibson Art Company and other companies like it expanded to fill the vacuum left behind by European greeting card companies.

For American companies, the period following WWI was characterized by expansion and innovation. One of Gibson Art Co’s innovations was the popularizing of the “French Fold” in the United States, in which a piece of paper is folded in half widthwise; this remains the most popular form of greeting card in the United States today.

In 1960, the company took on the name Gibson Greeting Cards, Inc. to reflect their new focus on greeting card manufacturing and by 1963, it had become the third-largest greeting card company in the world. In 1965, CIT Financial Corporation purchased Gibson Greeting Cards and the company passed out of Gibson family hands. Not long after, the company changed hands again, and its name was shortened to Gibson Greetings, Inc.

Over the next few decades, Gibson Greetings expanded production to include other products, such as gift-wrap. By its peak in the mid-20th century, Gibson Greetings was the third-largest greeting card company in the world, behind only American Greetings, Co. and Hallmark, Co.

In the 1990s, Gibson Greetings ran into financial and legal trouble. The company lost the right to print several licensed characters (such as Garfield the cat) to competitors. In consequence of the loss of printing rights for these characters, Gibson Greetings also lost Walmart’s business to competitors who could print character cards. At the same time, in a move to boost profits, Gibson Greetings, Inc. experienced a major overhaul, with management firing many employees in an attempt to boost profits by cutting expenses.

Unfortunately for Gibson Greetings, the higher profits resulting from mass layoffs drove many of the company’s shareholders to sell while Gibson Greetings, Inc. stocks were artificially inflated. This caused a crash in Gibson Greetings stock prices. The company reported heavy losses due to these changes in subsequent years. By 2000, Gibson Greetings was forced to shut its doors permanently when it was bought out by American Greeting Cards, Inc., where they live on as a product line. So, although the company is long-since closed, cards bearing the Gibson family name are still available to this day.

Norcross

The Norcross Greeting Card Company was formed by Arthur Norcross in the mid-1920s.  For many years it was located at 244 Madison Avenue, New York City.  In the early years, the company name on its letterhead was simply Norcross, and its areas of business listed as Publishing and Advertising.  Mr. Norcross, his wife June, and apparently at least one child, a daughter, were active not only in the management of the company, but also in the design and selection of its cards.  Among its many other distinctions, Norcross is noted as the first commercial card company to produce Valentine’s Day cards.  In addition to the design work of its own employees, Norcross used the work of free-lance designers.  

Mr. Norcross died in 1969 and in 1974 the Company was sold, but didn't fare well. It was then sold to Ziff, a magazine publishing and communications firm, which also owned Rust Craft (see below).  It was downhill for both companies after that.  What was left of Norcross was sold at auction in 1981.  

Rust Craft

The Rust Craft Greeting Card Company was born in a bookshop in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1906. Fred Winslow Rust, owner of the bookshop, created and printed what was believed to be the first Christmas card, with a brief message in two colors on heavy tan paper. This was such a success that Rust went on to make letters, postcards, and greeting cards with envelopes. Rust revolutionized the use of the “French Fold,” a method of folding paper into quarters in order to print a card on a single sheet of paper with a single printed side. Fred’s brother, Donald, joined up and helped with the manufacturing and finances so Fred could concentrate on creativity and sales. Fred and his staff wrote many of the most popular messages. They invented Valentines, cards for Easter, St. Patrick’s Day, and Thanksgiving; they also produced anniversary cards and bon voyage and travel messages. The company introduced Braille cards for the visually impaired. Eventually, they gave up the book shop and moved the greeting card business to Boston, where they ceased their retail business entirely. 

In 1954, having outgrown their first location, they moved to Dedham, where they built their own much admired facility on Rustcraft Road and remained in business until 1980. The business was then purchased by Ziff Corporation, who also owned Norcross Greeting Card Company, and Rust Craft’s manufacturing was relocated to the Norcross facility in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Both Rust Craft and Norcross Greeting card (see above) companies were eventually bought by Windsor     

Communications, which struggled to create a successful merger. Windsor attempted to sell Norcross’s upscale cards and Rust Craft’s mass-market cards, but this strategy did not work out. They could not take advantage of the economy of scale, since they were still making two distinct types of card. Windsor was also competing with Hallmark and American Greetings Corporation, which together accounted for 75 percent of the then $2 billion card market. The Windsor Corporation went bankrupt and American Greetings Corporation picked up whatever was left of the two failed companies.