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Samuel A. Biemesderfer calling card

Photo(s) by Alan Mays. Imported from Flickr on Jan 8, 2023. Artwork published in
circa 1890
.
Samuel A. Biemesderfer calling card
Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by Alan Mays and tagged with “textornate”. License: All Rights Reserved.

Samuel A. Biemesderfer. East Hempfield, Pa.

Despite the different spelling of the name, I believe this calling card belonged to Samuel A. Beamesderfer (1860–1925). Other versions of the name from official records include Bemesderfer, Bemisderfer, and Bimesderfer. The 1870 U.S. Federal Census listed Landisville, Pennsylvania, as the post office used by Samuel’s family. Today East Hempfield is the name of the township surrounding Landisville.

The typeface used for Biemesderfer’s name is Text Ornate, which was patented in 1872 and appears in MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan Co., Specimens of Printing Types: Ornaments, Borders, Corners, Rules, Emblems, Initials, &c. (1892), p. 379. For other examples of this typeface, see the calling cards for Warren Perkins and Catharine A. Emerick.

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  • Text Ornate

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