Ledger Job Print, Philadelphia

A forgotten actor, a sorcerer who claimed to have lived for centuries, and a tagline borrowed from the burning bush. This 1878 poster for Harry C. Franck as Joseph Balsamo came off the presses of Ledger Job Print, the jobbing office of the Public Ledger, one of Philadelphia’s great nineteenth-century newspapers. Under its proprietor George W. Childs, the shop supplied bold, bright posters to theatres, variety halls and circuses, made to be read at a glance from across the street.

The full story, and what little is known of Franck himself, is on the print page.