Kistler Printing and Lithography Collection, 1922-1975 | Special Collections & Archives

Series I: Print Jobs

Series II: Printing Materials

Kistler, William A.

William A. Kistler established a printing business in Los Angeles in 1910. After World War I he purchased a lithography firm. His son, Lynton Kistler (1897-1993), learned offset lithography there in the late 1920s, and also began working on lithographic stones. He was one of a few local printers who became proficient with this process. Merle Armitage and Jean Charlot were his first customers. In 1932 Kistler printed Armitage’s The Work of Maier-Krieg (NB 588 M25 A7) using the offset process. Vernon Grant’s graphic art appears on several advertisements for the company during the 1930s.

In 1936, William Kistler sold his business, but Lyton continued making lithographs out of his garage studio. After briefly opening his own business he moved to New York in 1941 where he worked in the printing trade. While working for Blanchard Press in New York he published a pamphlet on airplane profile recognition [Item 2-27]. On returning to Los Angeles in 1945, he resumed working on projects for Merle Armitage who brought him more work from other artists such as Edward Weston, Millard Sheets, and Warren Newcombe and his wife Beatrice Wood.

Kistler stopped making lithographs in 1952 because of an allergic reaction he developed to the acids used in lithography, and the expense of working on stone. He turned to more commercial printing and purchased a plant at 1653 West Temple Street. The business prospered and his financial situation improved. In 1970 he sold this plant to purchase a larger facility at Washington and Normandie Boulevards. He sold the business in 1976 and retired from commercial printing.