The Malena Company: An Early 20th Century Success Story

Dental trade cards from the late 19th Century are highly prized collector's items, primarily due to chromolithography, a printing technique prevalent at the end of the 19th Century. Beginning with the 1876 World's Fair in Chicago, these trade cards became a hallmark of business advertising. Among the most notable companies producing them was Malena (MA-LE-NA), founded by Dr. Chauncey F. York in 1899. Dr. Ted Croll, a Doylestown, PA pediatric dentist and life-long aficionado of such cards, donated his entire collection of trade cards to NYU, including 120 from the MA-LE-NA company. This paper explores the company's rise and fall, its founder's story, and the historical significance of Malena trade cards.