Long Island is an 118-mile-long island located in southeastern New York State, just east of the island of Manhattan. Long Island is comprised of four counties: Suffolk County, Nassau County, Queens County, and Kings County. Babylon, N.Y. and Fire Island, N.Y., are part of Suffolk County which occupies the eastern-most portion of Long Island. Suffolk County is the largest of the four counties by area and is known for its rich, fertile farmland and vast coastline.
The Albertype Company was a Brooklyn-based publisher that was founded by brothers Adolph and Herman L. Wittemann. In 1890, the publishing company, originally established as Wittemann Brothers circa 1879, changed its name to the Albertype Company, denoting the company's use of the collotype (or albertype) photographic process. The company operated from 1890 to 1952 and produced over 25,000 prints. The Albertype Company both 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 known as souvenir albums or view albums, are books that contain commercially published groups of photographs depicting a place, activity, or event.
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Sources:
- 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
- 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
From the guide to the Souvenir of Babylon and Fire Island, viewbook, 1889, (Brooklyn Historical Society)
