Royal Photo Company Royal Photo Company Louis Bramson established the Royal Photo View Company in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1904. In 1908, the company was renamed the Royal Photo Company. The Royal Photo Company focused on commercial photography and, unlike many other photographic businesses, did not operate a studio for portraits. Clients included Hillerich & Bradsby—makers of the Louisville Slugger baseball bat—and other businesses such as Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, and the Kaufman-Straus department store. Stern Bramson (1912–1989), the son of Louis Bramson, joined the studio upon graduation from DuPont Manual High School in 1930 and remained
History of Louisville, Kentucky Bradsby manufactures over one million wooden bats per year, accounting for about two of three wooden bats sold worldwide. In 1877 the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary relocated to Louisville from Greenville, South Carolina, where it had been founded in 1859. Its new campus, at Fourth and Broadway downtown, was underwritten by a group of Louisville business leaders, including the Norton family, eager to add the promising graduate-professional school to the city's resources. It grew quickly, attracting students from all parts of the nation, and by the early 20th century it was the second largest accredited seminary in the United States.