Louis Kurz 1833-1921
Quoted from Paul M. Angle, "Views of Chicago 1866-1867," Antiques Vol. LXIII, No. 1 (January 1953), 60-61:
The artistic merit of Chicago Illiustrated was due largely to Jevne and Almini's choice of a capable artist and lithographer. Louis Kurz was an Austrian who made his way to Chicago in 1852. For eight years he worked as a "scenic artist," and then turned to lithography. In 1863 he joined with several others to form the Chicago Lithographing Company, which quickly made a name for itself. Like the Jevne and Almini partnership, the company came to an end in 1871. After the fire Kurz established the American Oleograph Company in Milwaukee, where he remained until 1878, when he moved the company to Chicago. Two years later he formed a partnership with Alexander Allison, and spent the last years of his life turning out hundreds of gorgeously garish chromolithographs, by which the firm of Kurz and Allison is known today. [August 2009]