Wittemann Brothers was a Brooklyn-based publishing company that was founded by brothers Adolph and Herman L. Wittemann, circa 1879. In 1890, the company changed its name to the Albertype Company, denoting the company's use of the collotype (also called albertype) photographic process. The publishing company operated from 1890 to 1952 and produced over 25,000 prints. The Albertype Company produced their own photographs (Adolph was a photographer), as well as reproduced photographic images produced by other companies or individual photographers. Using the prints, the company published postcards and viewbooks. Viewbooks, also called souvenir albums or view albums, are books that contain commercially published groups of photographs depicting a place, activity, or event.
-
Sources:
- The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. "Albertype Company Photographs, 1910-1950 (V-18A)." Accessed July 1, 2011. http://discover.hsp.org/Record/hsp.opac.v01-165628
- Getty Research Institute: Art & Architecture Thesaurus. "Viewbooks." Accessed June 27, 2011. http://www.getty.edu/vow/AATFullDisplay?find=viewbooks&logic=AND¬e=&english=N&prev_page=1&subjectid=300026684
From the guide to the Panorama of New York, Brooklyn, and Vicinity, viewbook, 1879, (Brooklyn Historical Society)
