Solid O.R.T. in Seymour, Indiana - 1912 - N&W Calendars, Stone Printing

[NW Mailing List]

To finally finish my comments on what is now well over a month-old topic:

That calendar we got for Matewan was from my collection; it was a reference copy page from the files that Stone Printing had kept. Once Stone closed and moved in the 1980s, some pickers got into the files, and I purchased various things from them. If I recall correctly, the Matewan one was a dark blue with reverse type at the top, and the numbers and all were in the same blue, I also have another sample page from another year, close to that was printed in black.

In answer to Abe’s questions, as best I can. To my recollection, the calendars were wrapped in a thin, two-toned green striped paper. They were rolled for shipment as he had said.

To the best of my knowledge, prior to about 1970, there were three official variations of N&W-created calendars, according to my understanding, there were the wall calendars with the 12-month pages, the single color, and in later years, the Tuscan ink. Second, there was the year-at-a-glance wall calendar, which was a poster size with a photo with the 12 months surrounding the photo, and then finally, there was the executive calendar, which was roughly 11x17 pages with large color images at the top and the month below, all bound by a metal strip. At some point, probably in the late 1960s or so, an 8.5 x 11 single-page version of the calendar was done, and another variant was a demurrage calendar on a single page.

Shown on the attached N&W Photo are the 1941 calendars rolling off the press in January 1940.

In his comment about the specific ink, printing ink is fairly thick and comes in cans, usually 1 pound or 5 pounds, not by the drum.

Stone Printing came about from Edward Stone, who moved to Roanoke in 1883 to manage, I believe, Bell Printing of Lynchburg’s, Roanoke branch. Stone, rather quickly formed his own print shop, named Stone Printing. I do not know if he bought out Bell’s Roanoke office. Stone was quite a photographer, and many of the early images around Roanoke were taken before the railroad’s photographic lab arrived in late 1916. Stone soon opened his own printing company and was quite successful with a contract for a considerable amount of the railroad’s work, including timetables and such. 

Stone’s wife is credited with the dogwood design, executed by a now unknown Stone Printing designer, used on the china for the Hotel Roanoke. Stone, of course, also printed for Hotel Roanoke, an N&W-owned subsidiary.

Here is what was in the N&W Magazine on Stone’s death June 3, 1938:

Edward L. Stone Dies 
In the passing of Edward L. Stone on June 3, Roanoke lost one of her most valued sons, the railroad, a devoted friend and good neighbor. If Mr. Stone himself had been a member of the railroad family he could not have watched with keener interest and pride the growth of the N. & \Y. during the last half century. Mr. Stone came to Roa­noke in 1883 to establish the print­ing firm which bore his name--a business which brought him in daily contact for 55 years with Norfolk and Western men. 
Serving Roanoke in various civic capacities, a man of broad vision and worthwhile accomplishments, Mr. Stone's influence was felt through many years. As a biblio­phile, a collector of rare books; a man rated high in his business both in this country and abroad, Edward L. Stone lived a full and productive life. (Readers of the MAGAZINE will probably recall an interview with i\Ir. Stone which appeared under the title "Memoirs Of A Friend" in the October 1933 issue.) 
Born on September 15, 1864, Edward L. Stone was 73 years old at the time of his death. The MAGAZINE and members of the Norfolk and Western Family feel a deep personal loss in the passing of a good neighbor and loyal friend.  

Best
Ken Miller


> On Jul 10, 2024, at 9:02 AM, NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> All,
> 
> In the early days, the background of the calendars was a dark blue.  When Ken Miller and I did the Matewan Depot Restoration & Museum, we found a 1927 example (just a single page tear-off) that verifies this and had it framed.  I'd say the red background dates from 1933, when the public timetable covers were changed to red.
> 
> And, yes, most N&W printing was done by next-door Stone Printing.  Stone was a leading Roanoke citizen and was a partner in Borderland Collieries ("our coal stacks well"), just west of Williamson.
> 
> Tim Hensley
> 
> On Wednesday, July 10, 2024 at 08:20:53 AM EDT, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> Dr. Schear (I can never get anything past that Sly Ole Fox) wrote me off-list concerning the photo, and asked, Which Railroad?
> 
> It seems there were two railroads in Seymour, the B&O and the Suh'thin. When the image file came to me, it was identified as having been made on the lordly B&O. I had that information built into the JPG file name, but the N&W List's robot applied some other name to the file, so you did not see "B&O" when you clicked on the link.
> 
> What caught my eye was the N&W Kalendarium on the wall. In my childhood (1940s, 1950s,) those things were ubiquitous in towns the railroad passed through. They came in a tightly wound-up roll (not more than 1.5 inch dia.,) wrapped in green paper, and were bound across the top with a thin piece of steel, painted in gloss red paint (probably a lacquer) and crimped across the top of the stack of the 12 paper sheets.
> 
> What always raised my curiosity was the color of the "red" ink. It was, to use a nice Latin word, invarius. That is, the shade never drifted from year to year. My guess is that the color was some standard "process color" in the printing trade, and Stone Printing & Manufacturing Company (printers of the calendar, located right next door to the N&W General office Building on North Jefferson Street) no doubt bought it in 55 gallon drums.
> 
> Even as a backward little street urchin, I wondered how much money the railroad budgeted for the calendar each year.
> 
> A lot of folks were saddened when the railroad discontinued yearly distribution of these lovely calendars. Somehow the townsfolks knew that "this will be the last one."  (My mother's father had been a bookkeeper for the Nolan Company, the plumbing suppy house. He died in 1929, but Nolan continued sending my mother their yearly calendar until she moved away from Roanoke in 1996. That kind of "employee loyalty" is a completely alien concept in today's world ! )
> 
> So, my question still stands: When were these calendars introduced by the railroad, and when were they discontinued ?
> 
> Now, here is a BONUS QUESTION, likely only answerable by a certain well-connected party who contributes all manner of abstruse and recondite insider information to this List. (I will not mention his name, but his initials are K.M.) -- Who was the Stone family who ran Stone Printing for decades upon end and did all the railroad's printing, and what was their relationship to the railroad, other than commercial ?
> 
> We were all privileged to have seen the Great Railroad Show before the curtain fell forever...
> 
> -- abram burnett
> System Update: Turnips Will Return Soon
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