W. M. Cline Company
The W.M. Cline Company was created in 1938 in Chattanooga, Tennessee by Walter Matson Cline, Jr. to produced picture postcards. By 1951 it had grown with additional plants in Atlanta, Ga., and Knoxville, Tn. with branches in Nashville, Memphis, and Gatlinburg, Tn., as well as Asheville and Charlotte, NC., Atlanta, Ga., and Birmingham and Huntsville, AL.[1]
Early years[edit]
Walter Matson Cline, Sr. was born on April 28, 1873 in Gurnsey County, Ohio.[2] He grew up in the town of Cambridge, and in 1904 moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee and found work in the photography business of Elsworth L. Mudge. By 1910 he was able to purchase the business of his former employer and establish Cline Studios which produced commercial photographs for newspapers and use in advertisements. He took some 75,000 pictures and provided the Chattanooga Community Advertising Association with 3,000 photos used to promote Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mr. Cline Sr.'s untimely death occurred on April 12, 1941, when a pistol he was preparing for an event accidentally discharged, killing him instantly. His wife, Lucy Haley Cline, took over the business.[3]
The Post Card years[edit]
Walter Matson Cline, Jr. (1914-1984) had worked with his father for several years and their styles are so similar that it is difficult to distinguish the fathers work from the sons. In 1938, the younger Cline established the W.M. Cline Company which produced postcards using photographs from both the father's early years and those of his own. The early post cards were in a black and white format until 1958 when Cline opened a color plant that could print 6,000 postcards per hour from more than 30,000 accumulated stock negatives.[1]. Many of the postcards were of popular attractions such as Lookout Mountain and Rock City and the series Mr. Cline Sr. had taken following the Dixie Highway during the 1930's, a time when the highway made traveling through Tennessee much easier. The Library of Congress has a collection of 290 of the Cline postcards on file.[4]
In 1978, Mr. Cline, Jr., sold the company for $5 million dollars. He died from chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 1984 at the age of 69, one year older than his father was at the time of his death.[1]. While the Clines created thousands of individual scenic postcards, the exact number is not available.[1] But without a doubt, they contributed significantly to the preservation of the pictorial history of Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, and North and South Carolina during their 60 year endeavors.
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Ramsay, Lisa; Vaughn, Tammy (2011). Tennessee's Dixie Highway: The Cline Postcards. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. pp. 9, 10. ISBN 978-0-7385-8769-1. Search this book on
- ↑ Cline, Cathy (February 19, 2009). "Walter Cline". Findagrave. Retrieved October 17, 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Riverwood Shops". Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University. October 18, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2019. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "The W.M. Cline Company Postcards 1955". Library of Congress: Prints and Photograph Division. October 18, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2019. Unknown parameter
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