1880s R. Rothschild & Sons Cincinnati Saloon Supply Catalog Paper
Measures about 13 x 10"
Original period vintage Victorian item not newsprint type paper, not a reprint or reproduction
Rare item, preserved inside a hotel register from 1880 from the Susquehanna Valley Hotel. About the hotel: The Great Bend, Pennsylvania landmark known as the Kilrow House Hotel, formerly known as the Susquehanna Valley House or simply the Valley House, was owned by the Kilrow family from around the 1850s to 1965. However, another proprietor named James E. Howe owned or ran the property around 1880 to 1882. By 1980, the building had fallen into disrepair and disuse and the city condemned it and scheduled it for demolition, citing a rat control program. L.B. Buell commenced building on the Kilrow house and the structure was completed by Edwards in 1851-1852. Michael Kilrow bought the building in 1862. The hotel was situated next to an Erie Railroad station where all trains except for two daily limited stopped every day. Also, it was one stop down from a major station in Susquehanna with a roundabout and a large population of both trains and railroad workers. In the 1880s, the railroad brought industry and prosperity to the Susquehanna Valley. It also brought traveling shows of many types in the pre-Vaudeville era, including Jubilee groups, minstrel groups, musical groups, opera groups, and others. Regular clientele of the hotel into railroad workers like E. Kirby Fireman, and many of the traveling entertainers. We believe that Mr. Howe obtained this and some other catalogs related to equipped a hotel in 1880 and stowed them in the back of the hotel ledger.
Pre-owned, lightweight newsprint type paper, front and back covers de-attached from the rest of the catalog, numerous small folds and creases to the edges of the papers, other small types of age appropriate wear
One copy found in existence at Columbia University Library, catalogued as follows: "Print Book, English, [approximately 1880] Publisher:The Firm, Cincinnati, O., [approximately 1880], Genre: Catalogs, Physical Description: 20 pages : illustrations ; 27 x 36 cm, Manufacturers' catalogs Ohio Cincinnati 19th century, Running title: R. Rothschild's Sons, Cincinnati and Chicago, "Everything necessary to furnish a saloon complete," catalogue of saloon fixtures and an invitation to visit the factories in Cincinnati and Chicago"