"... Towering above all the characters whom the world calls great stands one Person-Jesus Christ. Everybody should know about him.

Adults find the record of his marvelous life in the Book of books. There, in language familiar to them they read all about him, and they conclude he was the greatest, the kindest, and the most helpful Person this world has ever known.

Children, too, should be given the opportunity to read about him. And so, because picture-language is more familiar to children, and story-langauge is more easily understood by them, we present here in pictures and stories a record of the Life of Christ..."

Providence Lithograph Company was originally established circa 1875-1975. In 1878 they started to focus on creating religious lesson materials for Sunday schools & soon became the leading printer of those type of materials in the United States. Most work was commissioned by educational and publishing wings of the larger Protestant denominations.

- The Lithographs -

The firm maintained an extensive library of artwork which focused (for the most part) on bible based subject matter. Some art work was actually commissioned or else thee rights were obtained to produce reproductions. Many works were licensed for permission of use through the companies Eyre, Spottiswood, & Lutterworth Press in England. Individual prints of its art were not generally produced or licensed out to other publishers

Originally used as teaching materials, many of the prints have a number reference on bottom right hand, this is to identify their place in the particular teaching series. Some may have (either) an attached reference card, or the teaching lesson printed directly on the back of the print. Many are dated, most referencing the publisher, licensee and original artist.

- The Artists Their Work -

The colors used to create these lithographs are vibrant and beautiful, and each reflects the persona of the wonderfully talented artist creator who designed the piece. Many are portrayals of New Testament Bible parables, though there are some Old Testament subjects also represented. There are also some Christian themed school and family themes represented.

The work of various artists were employed including the names... Tarrant, Handsaker, Woodward, Bates, Coller, Elsie Anna Wood, Fredericks, R. Crosby, Harold Copping, Foxley, M.B. Barker, Godwin, Brisley.

A few years ago back when I was selling a variety of vintage items on-line at my former Ruby Lane shop, I began collecting small lots of vintage Biblical themed prints issued by the Providence Lithograph Company.

I can't even remember how it started, I believe I was researching some vintage books and happened upon some of these on E-bay and thought they would be great as framed art.

Unfortunately, I found the majority of what I purchased on E-bay did not meet my own standards for reselling as frame-able art. Even though (up close) some of these vintage lithograph prints had flaws due to age from use as classroom teaching aids and storage, most of them still photographed fairly well. It seemed a great waste not to put these digital images to some kind of use... Out of all this the idea God's Gallery began to be formed.

I decided that I wanted to share & make these images available for others to view and to use. Hopefully the digital images of this wonderful artwork would prove to be a blessing and act as a witness to both the love of Christ & the beauty of the Bible's truth.

You may wonder what happened to my remaining collection... I found there wasn't a huge market for selling these prints unframed and I might never get to actually trying to frame them and sell them as framed art... So instead of selling them in bulk lots on E-bay I would try to put them to a much better use.

Awhile back Voice of the Martyrs was having a book drive for people in Nigeria and some of their teaching centers there, so I packed up all my decent prints and sent them to VOM. Did they ever reach Nigerian Christians?... I don't know for sure, & probably won't until one day when I get to heaven and meet some of the fruits of my works.

In the mean time, I still all have the lithographs images in jpg files up on my Image Event site for me to remember them by, and for you (also) to enjoy!

For the past several years the main source of the gallery's images were Protestant Sunday School Teaching Materials, most of which were produced by the Providence Lithograph Company. Recently I've branched out a bit more to include illustrated Christian books designed for both children and adults.

A recent Goodwill hunting find was a book called "Come Unto Me" published in 1962. Published by Good Will Publishing, this "specific book" detailing the life of Christ was intended to be distributed by funeral homes as a source of comfort & hope for bereaved family members. The book's condition and illustrations were outstanding, with much of the artwork by Carl Bloch and Heinrich Hofmann, as well as Anton Dorph and other prominent artists.

Because the Sunday School lessons for children were geared to be "child sensitive", such subjects and images as the death of Christ were not produced in the teaching materials.

Now however, with the addition of the "Come Unto Me" illustrations... for the first time God's Virtual Gallery includes scenes of the crucifixion, rounding out the Biblical picture of the life, death & resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Call it an E-bay coup if you like, but I purchased over two hundred fifty vintage primary school leaflets from the 1920's - 1930's for less than a penny a booklet & that included shipping!

These were the first new images (since 2004) as I had stopped purchasing lots a few years ago when a buyer from the UK showed up out of the blue (apparently with unlimited funds compared to mine) and started swooping in and winning every lot of vintage Christian themed prints you could find. I just couldn't compete with that, and after a couple months of being constantly outbid I figured it just wasn't God's will for me to be purchasing more of these at that time.

I have periodically checked E-bay just to see what was up there, but got re-inspired (today) after putting up my God's gallery lens and found this auction which is the kind that comes along once in a blue moon. Can't wait to see what new images are in store.

The great thing about the Primary School leaflets is the pictures in them are only 6.5 x 5" so it is easier to photograph groups at a time. I have some new ideas spinning in my head, like hot laminating the decent photos so they would be more suitable for framing. I did save a few pictures and a handful of small leaflets from my collection and only parted with the larger large prints which were the bulk of the collection.

God is so very good, and His gallery now includes even more wonderful Biblical based and Christian themed images!

I gleaned close to 200 more new images from this lot and worked hard on geting these up in small batches. I forgot just how hard it is to photograph these smaller images and because they are between 70-80 years old the image quality is not nearly as sharp as on the larger "newer" lithographs from the 1950's era.

Still, by the time I finished the gallery size nearly doubled... wow

January to February 2008:

I've updated the gallery with 40 more images from the vintage 1920's - 1930's Primary Church School Leaflets and Primary Bible Lessons lithographs. Then came the tiny Bible cards.

March to April 2008:

Back to the Books!

Two books by Elsie Egermeier with lots of lovely illustrations, and a Goodwill find on April 01, 2008... no fooling! :) A volume from a series called "The Bible Story" (volume 4) by Arthur S. Maxwell with lots of new David & Solomon themed pics.

First, there is really no way to assign a value to these... and there really isn't an "established market" for them. I have seen them sell for pennies a print in large groups, to about $10 each... but it is hard to get everyday Christians to really see the true value of these, as "works of art" so to speak. However, if you happen to be a marketing genius you might have better luck than I did.

When I was selling the large prints I had an on-line store at an antiques and collectibles mall called Ruby Lane. I priced them at $10 including media mail shipping. I sold a handful and it was sporadic, they were an added selling factor and draw to the other items I was selling. I shipped them flat not in tubes because they are thicker than modern posters and that would have curled or ripped them so it was really time consuming to pack and ship them individually.

If you are thinking of going the E-bay route which is where I have purchased all my lots (not sold them) the time it would take to put up the auctions and the potential net in the end if you have tons of auctions and who your buying audience is.

If their condition is very good that would make them sellable for possible framing, as well as for sunday school teachers and homeschooling parents. I believe the only real place to make money selling these individually would be church bazaars, flea markets, etc... where people could see them up close and personal.

There is definitely a small market of buyers on E-bay who are more than willing to buy up larger lots (example qty 15, 25 or 50 for example) of decent quality prints... I have bought lots where the prints cost me anywhere from less than a penny to about 25 cents each.

If you plan to sell, definitely put up a lens or two for it on Squiddoo, for your E-bay auctions and whatever else you do with them. You can use the information I have on Providence Lithograph company if you like.

I have seen them called vintage sunday school posters, bible study posters (or prints), and a variety of other names on some E-bay ads. If you do decide to try to sell some individually on e-bay start off small and factor in your add cost, e-bay seller fees, paypal fees and you cost per print... I have seen people trying to sell these individually from $3.99 - $9.99... but the real buyers market is for the mid-size to large groups or lots, not individual prints.

I used to like to just go through my stacks & look at them sometimes, they really are great prints! Value, (like beauty) in this case is in the eye of the beholder. My original plan was to frame them & sell them as framed art, but it never happened.

Whatever, you do... enjoy them! And good luck if you attempt to sell any of them in the future.

Catholic holy cards have a religious picture (Many are of the Catholic Saints) on the front and a prayer (sometimes associated with a Catholic indulgence, or other text on the back... Some are specific to various Catholic feast days and holidays. "Memorial cards" with details on the departed loved are given out at funerals, as are Holy Cards for special events such as Baptism & Confirmation. Holy cards are considered sacramentals and blessed by certain clergy members. Some people use these as a form of "icon", and part of their personal prayer and devotions.

Protestant produced Bible Lesson Cards were used as study material & reward system in Sunday School curriculums designed for young school age children. The pictures included both old and new testament themes, as well as church and family themes. Scripture, Bible passages, specific theme and category that also included a child-friendly "Bible story", memory verse and related scripture, sometimes with a short prayer or song verse.