Thomas Nelson and Sons - Early in the 20th century, the publishing house of Thomas Nelson & Sons issued a series of twenty four painted picture postcards depicting historical and religious sites in the Holy Land and Egypt. Each postcard in this series, marked "Nelson Bible Series," was given a caption citing the historical and religious significance of the site. The paintings were done in watercolors in a schematic style, with Oriental-clad characters, camels and other figures in the foreground, the site or landscape providing the background decoration. Thomas Nelson (1789-1861) started his printing career as an apprentice, and within a few years established a family publishing house specializing in popular Bible and New Testament editions. In 1850, Thomas Jr. created one of the greatest advances in printing since Gutenberg with his invention of a rotary printing press. Using a continuous web sheet, his press printed far more rapidly than others and on both sides of the sheet simultaneously. In the second half of the 19th century, Thomas Nelson & Sons expanded their business to the USA, Canada, Europe and South Africa. On the eve of WWI, the company was one of the biggest of its kind, supplying popular religious literature in English, French, German, Spanish and Hungarian. Thomas Nelson's headquarters in London was bombed and destroyed during the Blitz, thus preventing any serious historical research on the company, including identification of the artists working for the company at the turn of the century. Following WWII, the company's center of activity moved to the US, where it operates under the name of Thomas Nelson Inc.