Joliet's Gerlach Barklow Calendar Company

Title: Calendar conservators

Author: Denise M. Baran-Unland

Publisher: The Herald-News

Date: 1//1/2010



As Tim and Michelle Smith of Plainfield signed copies of their book, "Joliet's Gerlach Barklow Calendar Company," at the Joliet Area Historical Museum, an elderly man approached them asking for help locating a picture that had been featured in one of the calendars.



That man had pretended to be fishing when he posed for that print 83 years ago, but he had never owned a copy of it. A friend had found a copy of "Buildin' Air Castles" when the man was 15 years old, but his parents didn't have the money to buy it. The Smiths not only found a copy for him, they included the salesman's sample story of the print.



What a great feeling to be able to give him the copy of the calendar print, especially at Christmas," Michelle said.



When the Smiths decided to compile a book of prints, photographs and anecdotes that illustrate the former Joliet factory, they wanted to accomplish more than preserve local history and honor their fellow collectors. They also wanted to resurrect an era for the people who lived it and create a remembrance for their descendants.



Help with research

With several thousand Gerlach-Barklow prints in their 12-year collection (the Smiths now collect the original paintings), the research part of the book was easy because 99 percent of the items featured in the book belong to the Smiths.



And thanks to local collector Erma Chuk (deceased), the Smiths had many firsthand accounts of former employees. Through the years, Chuk had conducted numerous interviews with members of the Gerlach-Barklow Quarter-Century Club in the hopes a book would one day be written.



There's a good chance that someone glancing at the photographs of the various factory departments and the many sports teams Gerlach-Barklow sponsored might spot a picture of a relative or friend, Tim said.



That's because the south Richards Street facility employed more than 1,500 employees during its 60-year history, with the female employees in the early 1900s outnumbering the men 50 to 1, Tim said. Women had a keener eye for the fine detail hand-coloring required, he noted.



History preserved

The factory's location made it easy for people to walk to the job, although many of the women were allowed to bring their work home. "Several of the kids we talked to said they could remember sitting around the kitchen table with mom and tying ribbon on the calendars," Tim said.

Among the many Gerlach-Barklow calendars, one in the late 1920s featured a Joliet girl who gained national attention.



Michelle said that Joliet girl became the first Miss Illinois pageant winner to win the Miss America title. The achievement of Lois Delander -- Miss America 1927 -- is illustrated in Gerlach-Barklow prints.



Another surprise to fascinate history buffs is that the illustrators signed only their last names because many of them were women and male business owners wouldn't buy calendars that featured female artists.



Tim said another interesting tidbit is that the company was worth more than $30 million when Theodore Gerlach died in 1933; when it began in 1907 the owners couldn't afford to buy a desk.



Although the Smiths prefer the early Victorian-style Gerlach-Barklow prints, they point out that, like Norman Rockwell, the Gerlach- Barklow calendars froze different segments of life -- from the policeman walking a boy across a street to the elderly Joliet woman who treasures a print of her deceased dog.



"One picture pretty much told a story of what was going on in America at the time," Michelle said.