Name/Title
Trade CardEntry/Object ID
2023.004.040Secondary Title
Dr. Ingham's Nervine Pain ExtractorDescription
Image shows a young girl in a blue and yellow dress with lace collar and cuffs and a hat with a feather. She is clutching flower or colorful leaves.
Below her image, the card reads, "Dr. Ingham's Nervine Pain Extractor, and Vegetable Liver Pills, Dr. H.A. Ingham & Co. Proprietors, Vergennes, Vt., Copyright 1889, Gast Lith. Co., N.Y.
On the opposite side, is a lengthy promotion of the "nervine pain extractor, listing dozens of uses. "No family should be without it." The card also notes that the small size bottle is on sale for 25 cents rather than the usual 35 cents.Context
This image on this card is from Gast Lith. Co. in New York, a business founded by John Gast, who was both a painter and lithographer of some renown.
Here is his story:
John Gast (21 December 1842 in Berlin, Prussia – 26 July 1896 in Brooklyn) was a Prussian-born American painter and lithographer.
His most famous work is American Progress (1872); this painting and many of his drawings are found in the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles.
Family in St. Louis
He was the son of Heinrich Konrad "Leopold" Gast (1810-1898) and Bertha Pauline Henriette Volkmann (1819-1902).[1] The family emigrated from Berlin to central Missouri wine country (present day Hermann, Missouri) before 1850. From there, the family moved to St. Louis a few years later. Leopold was a master lithographer, and with his brother August[2] established the August Gast Banknote and Lithograph Company. It was a prominent printing house, making financial documents for governments, letterhead designs for industry, ornate certificates for churches, and many other paper documents for customers across the United States.[3] The company exists today and its historic products are popular among collectors. John's brother Paulus became a prominent business and political leader in St. Louis.[4] He established the Gast Winery in the Baden neighborhood after discharge from the Union Army in the Civil War in 1865, and this evolved into the Gast Brewery by 1900.[5] The wine was shipped across the country and the brewery lasted into the 1940s.
Education in Europe
John inherited his father's talent for lithography and was immensely gifted. He left for Berlin in 1860 to finish his education during the Civil War. He earned a degree from the Royal Academy there and returned to St. Louis to work at his father's company. After three years, about 1867, he went to Paris to study art. The 1870 Census shows him living with his parents in St. Louis but within a year, he was working in New York. His drawings from Paris, Missouri, and New York at this time are in the Autry Museum collection.[6]
Life and career in New York
He married Augusta Marie Catherine Stohlmann (1841-1924) of New York about 1870. The couple resided at 297 Adelphi Street in Brooklyn. They had at least three children. Son John survived only a year, son Karl married but died in his 20s, and daughter Mary Louise Katherine Gast (1879-1940), survived into full adulthood.
In New York, John Gast helped launch the New York Daily Graphic, a newspaper that had a special lithographic section.[7] He worked at the paper for about five years, but went on to establish his own lithograph firm, Gast and Company. John received patents for several lithograph processes and equipment, such as a special lithograph screen that enabled color printing.[8] His company became the Photo-chrome Company and later Grey and Company. He is considered the inventor of the three-color lithograph process. Failing health required him to step back from his business ventures. He died of liver cancer in 1896 at age 53.Collection
Edgar and Margaret Crosby CollectionCataloged By
Remsen, NancyPublication Details
Publication Type
PostcardPublisher
Gast Lithography Co.Dimensions
Height
5-1/2 inWidth
3-1/2 inRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Dr. H.A. InghamCreated By
Nancy RemsenCreate Date
May 4, 2023Updated By
Nancy RemsenUpdate Date
November 14, 2023