Publisher · US
Dexter Press
West Nyack, New York · 1920–1980s
Founded by Thomas A. Dexter as a small print shop in 1920; moved to Pearl River, New York in 1928, and began printing postcards — linens and hand-coloured cards — through the 1930s.
Moved to West Nyack, New York in 1952, where it produced the natural-colour chrome cards it is best known for; it changed to high-gloss finishes around 1960.
One of the largest postcard printers in the country, printing for hundreds of smaller regional publishers rather than only its own titles.
Sold to Consolidated Foods in the early 1970s and combined with the Mid-Western Map Company of Aurora, Missouri in 1980 to form MWM Dexter; the West Nyack plant closed in 1984.
The Dexter Press, Inc. records (1934–c.1992) are held at the Newberry Library in Chicago.
Dating this publisher’s cards
US. The address in the imprint is the reliable clue: a West Nyack imprint means the card was printed after the 1952 move, and a Pearl River imprint points earlier. There is no published, reliable serial-number-to-year decoder for Dexter — unlike Curt Teich, whose production numbers come from surviving company job files. Number-range correlations for Dexter circulate among collectors, but they conflict with postmarks and other physical evidence often enough that we will not publish a Dexter year from a serial number alone. If a source hands you a confident single year decoded from a Dexter number, treat it with suspicion.
Sources: Dexter Press company chronology (1920 founding, 1928 Pearl River, 1952 West Nyack, 1980 MWM merger, 1984 plant closure): Newberry Library finding aid; Postcard History; The Digital Philatelist; Dexter Press, Inc. records, 1934–approximately 1992: Newberry Library, Modern Manuscripts and Archives. See methodology.