Ranchos Press
view enlarged panelThe Ranchos Press grew out of a greeting card business established in Ranchos de Taos by artist Ralph Pearson. A graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, Pearson was a master printmaker and created personalized etchings for cards which he and his wife, Margaret Hale, marketed throughout the country. After Chicago newspaper man Joseph O’Kane Foster joined the venture in 1921, it became known as Vancil Foster Greeting Cards.
Foster soon took over the business and expanded its offerings to include the work of other Taos artists, but never lost sight of his dream to become a novelist. Following four years of research in Europe, he returned to New Mexico in the early 1930s, where he wrote his prose poem, The Great Montezuma. He revived the Vancil Foster printing equipment only long enough to publish this unique limited edition under the Ranchos Press imprint.
(click thumbnails to enlarge)
(click panel to explore)