Union Lithography Company (1888 - 1948)

Union Lithography Company (1888 - 1948) was a San Francisco and Oakland based printing concern active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The firm was originally founded 1888 by the former Providence, Rhode Island printer, Jennison Clifton Hall (March 22, 1840 - May 20, 1898), as J. C. Hall and Company. Previously, Jennison was running a firm in Providence partnered with John E. Bugbee under the imprint of Bugbee and Hall. J. C. Hall and Company was renamed Union Lithography sometime around 1890. Hall died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1898, but the firm continued. The firm met with considerable success until its offices were destroyed during the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Later that year, to supplement their crippled printing capacity, Union purchased the Los Angeles Lithographic Company. Union was purchased by the H.S. Crocker and company in 1922, but retained its name until 1936, when the firms began publishing under the unified Crocker-Union imprint. The consolidated firm remained active until about 1948.