This chromolithograph poster (circa 1895), signed at lower right corner by the artist (Werner of Akron, Ohio), features colorful, highly detailed illustrations of the famous Peerless line of steam-powered machinery built by the Geiser Mfg. Co., Waynesboro, Pa. The graphic detail and bold colors of the canopy-covered Peerless steam traction engine are particularly striking.
The image of the Geiser factory in the center of the poster was also used by Werner on the back cover of Geiser’s 1896 catalog. The steam-powered Peerless gang plow was developed in 1884 to go along with the New Peerless wood-sided threshing machines, hay presses and sawmills already in the line.
Peter Geiser, born in 1826, got his first patent in 1852 for a separator. He started building his machines in 1854 in Smithsburg, Md. Geiser, Price & Co. was formed in 1866 in Waynesboro, Pa., and in 1869 Geiser Mfg. Co. was incorporated. The first Peerless steam engine was built in 1881. Geiser died in 1901. Emerson-Brantingham Implement Co., Rockford, Ill., bought out Geiser Mfg. Co. in 1912 and manufactured Peerless steam engines and threshing machines until the mid-1920s.
Grateful acknowledgement is given to David Schnakenberg, who contributed this image from his collection of pre-1910 chromolithographs of farm machinery advertising. For more information, contact him at 10108 Tamarack Dr., Vienna, VA 22182; (703) 938-8606; dschnakenberg@verizon.net; view the Schnakenberg Collection at http://stores.ebay.com/Farm-Machinery-Advertising-Art.
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