Background
He was born on March 12, 1824 in Breslau, Prussian Silesia (now Wrocław, Poland). His father, Jonas Louis Prang, was a French Huguenot, and his mother, Rosina (Scherman) Prang, was German.
He was born on March 12, 1824 in Breslau, Prussian Silesia (now Wrocław, Poland). His father, Jonas Louis Prang, was a French Huguenot, and his mother, Rosina (Scherman) Prang, was German.
In his father's factory for dyeing and printing calico Louis Prang served an apprenticeship from the time he was thirteen till he was eighteen; he then went to Hagen in Westphalia to study further the technique of printing and dyeing.
Through favoritism, according to his own account, he escaped military service, and instead of entering the army he helped his sister's husband manage a paper-mill for about a year. He then went to Bohemia in search of work, and was engaged by one Peter Walzel, but had to agree to spend a further five years as a journeyman, acquiring a wider knowledge of printing and dyeing. He spent a year in Vienna, and visited Switzerland, Alsace, Rouen, and Great Britain.
Returning to Germany, he found himself under the ban of the Prussian government, but his offense seems to have been holding liberal opinions rather than active participation in the Revolution of 1848. He fled to Bohemia, however, and from there sought greater security in Switzerland, finally deciding to emigrate to America.
Landing in New York April 5, 1850, he went to Boston, where with his small amount of capital he formed a partnership with an American of German descent, planning to publish architectural works, but the venture was short-lived. He next engaged in the manufacture of leather goods, but found this enterprise unsatisfactory and decided to learn wood engraving. He worked for a time under Frank Leslie, then head of the art department of Gleason's Pictorial, and continued as a journeyman till 1856, when he started in business as a lithographer, first in partnership with Julius Mayer as Prang & Mayer, and after 1860 as L. Prang & Company. His industry and enterprise soon secured him a profitable return from the printing of business cards, announcements, and various forms of small advertising. He was constantly devising novelties.
During the Civil War he took advantage of the public interest in the territory being fought over to publish maps and plans of battles, which were sold in large numbers. In 1864 he visited Europe with his family, and on his return he began the reproduction of famous works of art. It was not believed that the American public would appreciate these works or pay the six dollars it was necessary to charge for them, but they proved very popular. According to Printing Times, Mr. Prang was the first to apply the designation of 'chromos' to this type of colored lithograph.
In 1867 he established a model printing establishment in Roxbury, where, in addition to reproducing his "chromos, " he employed the printing craft as a subsidiary to art in various other ways. He devised appropriately decorated Christmas cards which he first sold in England and then in 1875 put on the American market. In 1882 he established the Prang Educational Company.
Meanwhile, L. Prang & Company continued to publish lithographs and to deal in artist supplies. Prang's water colors were a standard make for many years.
He retired from active business in 1899 and died ten years later in a California sanitarium.
On November 1, 1851, he married Rosa Gerber, who died in 1898. His second wife, Mary Amelia (Dana) Hicks Prang, whom he married on April 15, 1900, with one daughter by his first marriage, survived him.