I came across something today that made me dig deeper into the Wm. Campbell Wall Paper Co. of Hackensack.
The company moved to Hackensack from New York City at the turn of the century (Picture 1). I wasn't sure where it was located, but I got a clue from a railroad site (Picture 2). Picture 3 shows an ad for the company.
(click on Pictures 4-7 to enlarge)
Somewhere around 1921, Tait Paper & Color Industries was set up as a holding company comprising all remaining manufacturing plants for wallpaper and color, including Campbell and two other companies in Hackensack (see illustrations in Picture 4).
Campbell left Hackensack and moved to Glens Falls, NY, in 1928. In 1929, a reorganization resulted in the formation of the Imperial Paper and Color Corporation.
Back to Wm. Campbell: some examples of the company's output are in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (one of two Smithsonian museums in New York City):
http://xrl.us/WmCampbell1 (Picture 5)
A bit more interesting:
http://xrl.us/WmCampbell2 (Picture 6)
This one may be of particular local interest:
http://xrl.us/WmCampbellTheOritani (Picture 7)
DESCRIPTION of "The Oritani":
Repeating design of stream with canoes carrying Indians, some carrying rifles, some fishing. Trees form a band in the background. Top margin stamped: Antiseptic Pat'd 8-9-04, and Wm. Campbell-Wall-Paper-Co., with color register marks. Bottom margin stamped: The Oritani, Aegli Desgr, 5015. Printed in greens, red and browns, the trees in "a" largely green, and those in "b" in brown.The description says it's a stream, but I wonder if it could be a river.
So what prompted me to spend my afternoon doing this unplanned research?
While looking at some family papers, I came across my paternal grandmother's (b. 1893) resume from 1961 (sending out resumes at age 68?). What caught my eye was one of three jobs that were listed as "Previous to 1926":
"Tait Paper & Color Industries (Wm. Campbell Wall Paper Co.), Hackensack, N.J., Secretary to Vice-President"I also found a 1947 Bergen Evening Record article about her father - my great-grandfather - Seymour Dunbar of Little Ferry, who was an author and historian who died earlier that year at age 81. It told about an 1847 proclamation from a US general during the Mexican War that threatened Mexican towns with "wholesale reprisals" if his Army supply trains were molested.
Seymour had the only copy of this document and had willed it to the University of Cincinnati. He also provided that photostats of the document be sent to the Library of Congress, the War and State Departments, and the University of Mexico - all of whom had asked for copies of the document during his lifetime.
One other interesting tidbit: Seymour lived his last year with his daughter, who had divorced my grandfather and was now married to a man named Stanley Kavrik.
They lived at 20 Kavrik St. in Little Ferry.
I think Stanley was a captain in the Little Ferry PD, but I don't know the origin of the street name. It must be weird living on a street named for someone in your family.