The Winnipeg-based Consolidated Stationery Company Limited was incorporated on 15 April 1895 through the amalgamation of two rival wholesale paper and stationery dealers: O’Laughlin Brothers and Company and Parsons Bell and Company. Its founding stockholders were members of the two merged firms and its initial officers were John Miles O'Loughlin (President), Harris Bell (Vice-President), W. E. Hazley (Treasurer), and Thomas A. Watts (Secretary) with Silas Richard Parsons and M. R. O'Loughlin as directors. It occupied offices in the newly constructed Peck Building and, in 1905, in the Confederation Life Warehouse.
Between 1906 and 1912, the company was one of the most prolific distributors of postcards in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. C. S. Co., as the company was usually identified on its postcards, sourced most of its stock from Germany, but the company did have a printing division and it appears that a small number of postcards may have been produced in-house.
The company appears to have ceased operations in 1925, a number of years after it got out of the postcard business.
See also:
Memorable Manitobans: Frank Alvin Earnest Hamilton (1881-1964)
Bertram R. “Ron” Souch, The Picture Postcards of Western Canada by Stedman Bros. Ltd. and Consolidated Stationery Co. Ltd., Vancouver, 2006.
“Consolidated Stationery Co.,” Winnipeg Tribune, 27 February 1895, page 5.
“New city companies,” Manitoba Free Press, 4 March 1895, page 6.
“Mrs. E. Bell former local resident, dead,” Winnipeg Tribune, 12 November 1924, page 6.
This page was prepared by Andrew Cunningham, Rob McInnes, and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 7 September 2024
