Biographical information on Ignaz (Ignatz, Ignatius) Kohler has been difficult to confirm. We believe he was born around 1817, and emigrated from Württemberg-Hohenzollern. He was active as a German-language publisher, bookseller, importer, and bookbinder at various addresses in Philadelphia from 1848 to 1897.
Library authority records give his birth as 1827.
Ig. Kohler died in 1901.
Records for the Mt. Peace Cemetery in Philadelphia indicate he was interred on May 26, 1901.
His age is given as 85, which would put his birth date at 1816. Cause of death is given as senile debility.
Information from Illustrated Philadelphia: Its Wealth and Industries. New York. American Publishing and Engraving Co., 1889, p. 178.
Opened in 1848, Kohler’s publishing house “has long been the chief source of supply in this city for German publications of every description, including text-books, standard works of prose and poetry; medical, scientific, and agricultural works; church and theological literature; illustrated magazines and books in fine bindings; art publications, novels, and song books; the latest German newspapers and periodicals; also for photographs of ancient and modern masters, fine photograph albums and portfolios, stationary and holiday goods. . . . [T]he German population of the city make it their chief rendezvous. To drop into Kohler’s for a chat, a glimpse of the last new book or magazine, and an interchange of good fellowship is with them a daily duty. . . . Mr. Kohler is a German by birth and has resided in Philadelphia for full half a century. He is known and honored in both German and American society for his broad culture, wide reading and ready wit, and has richly deserved the popularity he now enjoys in both social and business life.”