Meriden Gravure Company

The Meriden Gravure Company was founded in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1888. Driven by the needs of the local silver industry, the company early developed expertise in high quality image reproduction. It perfected the use of the full-tone collotype printing method, and soon attracted business from other clients who required detailed image reproduction, including scientific journals, museums, libraries, and publishers of illustrated books. By the mid-twentieth century, the company was also using offset printing presses, for which it pioneered the use of the fine screened 300-line halftone process for art reproduction and scholarly facsimiles. Through careful quality control, Meriden Gravure achieved a reputation of consistent excellence in printed illustration. The company had a natural counterpart in the Stinehour Press of Lunenberg, Vermont, which was devoted to letterpress printing. The two companies were closely related and often collaborated; Meriden Gravure president E. Harold Hugo, a driving force behind Meriden's success from the late 1920s, had been on Stinehour's Board of Directors since it was founded in the 1950s. Anticipating Hugo's retirement, the companies merged in 1977. Meriden-Stinehour Press maintained operations in both locations through 1989, when it closed the Meriden plant.

From the description of Meriden Gravure Company records, 1895-1990 (bulk 1900-1977). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702185693

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