Founded in 1890 by F.J. Walker and a partner as Erie Show Printing Company, this firm out of Erie, Pennsylvania originally printed for small traveling shows. Because they offered primarily stock designs, the cost of Erie’s lithographs was often less than some of the larger printing firms.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Erie became one of the leading printers for the traveling show industry, handling much of the paper printed for the shows of the American Circus Corporation and also the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows.