McLoughlin Brothers Publishers

John McLoughlin was a Scottish coachmaker who came to New York in the early 1800s.  After working several years for an iron company that manufactured printing presses, his growing interest in the printing process led him to work for the New York Times newspaper before starting his own printing company in 1828.  Initially publishing semi-religious pamphlets for children, by 1840 he formed a partnership with wood engraver Robert H. Elton and began printing toy books, comic almanacs and valentines for the Elton Company.  “Toy books” were small books for children with colorful illustrations and large text.

 McLoughlin’s son John Jr. had been an apprentice to Elton and by 1850, when the senior Elton retired, McLoughlin Jr. took over the firm.  With the addition of his brother Edmund in 1855, the company continued to improve on the printing process and by 1870 the firm opened the largest color printing factory in the United States.  The McLoughlin Brothers took full advantage of the loose copyright laws covering British books, and began introducing American children to the colorful works of Kate Greenaway, Randolph Caldecott and Walter Crane. 

Eventually John Jr.’s sons would take over the company, producing a great variety of popular items from traditional stories and educational works to American-themed pop ups, paper dolls and games.  In 1920 the company was sold to their chief competitor in the industry, Milton Bradley, but their successful line of pop ups and series books would continue for decades. Having had a tremendous impact on the children’s publishing industry, the McLoughlin imprint continued into the early 1970s.