Typesetting at Banta's

This photograph from about 1905 shows the George Banta Printing Company in the Masonic Building, downtown Menasha.  Located at 165-167 Main Street, the company moved to Ahnaip Street in 1911.  Started as a hobby, the business later became the printer for Banta’s insurance business- calendars, notepads, desk blotters, and the like were produced as promotional and advertising premiums for his insurance customers. The George Banta Company was incorporated in September 1901 and, in time, became a major printer of fraternity and sorority magazines as well as university catalogs, yearbooks, and textbooks and, by 1930, it was printing some 130 periodicals.