Calendar advertising has a rich history dating back to the 1850s, when Ketterlinus Lithographic Manufacturing Co. of Philadelphia began printing calendars containing advertising. Promotional wall calendars became even more popular as printing technology improved. In 1878, Andrew and Jacob Geiger opened a printing press in Newark, New Jersey, and began printing advertising calendars, fans, posters, and other ephemeral items on paper.

Calendar advertising became increasingly popular in the late 1880s, thanks to the efforts of two enterprising Ohio journalists, Jasper Freemont Meek and his competitor, Henry Beach. They were fierce competitors, and between them they figured out how to put ads on a wide variety of items, from aprons, hats, and a wide variety of household items. They even invented the classic metal advertising queue trays, which are now prized by antique collectors.

Two other journalists, Thomas Murphy and Edward Burke Osborne, both of Red Oak, IA, are credited with inventing art calendars that became immensely popular in the late 1880s. Like Jasper Meek and Henry Beach, they needed new business to keep their presses busy and generate additional sales. Osborne printed a watercolor of the new Red Oak courthouse on cardboard, printed advertising around the painting, and added a calendar. It was a huge success.

Until then, no one had thought to put attractive works of art on calendars. The two men purchased beautiful photographs and paintings from a variety of artists and upgraded their printing capabilities to include 3-color printing. In 1894, Murphy and Osborne employed a total of 94 people, including 14 street vendors, and printed approximately three million calendars.

In late 1894, Murphy sold his stake in the business to Osborne, who moved the business to Newark, New Jersey, to be closer to the art and business centers of the New York metropolitan areas. Osborne then took advantage of a new printing technology, letterpress printing, to produce calendars of the highest quality. The resulting success of these calendars allowed him to install printing plants in Toronto, London, and Sydney, Australia.

Since then, promotional calendars have continued to grow in popularity as a promotional product. Today, printed promotional calendars continue to rank among the top three product groups in the promotional products industry.