Originally a bookbinder from Chicago, Emil Meininger moved to Colorado after losing everything in the Great Chicago Fire. He opened the first art supply store in Denver, H. R. Meininger Co., in 1881. Meininger sold art supplies to and befriended Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell.

With the expansion of the Fine Arts Department by later generation Meininger’s, by 1986, the store had become the largest art supply store west of the Mississippi. In its current location since 1993, H. R. Meininger Co. has had everyone visit from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Daniel Sprick. 

Still family-owned and operated to this day, guests can visit the 7,000-square-foot store in Denver, which not only sells art supplies and inspiration but is also filled with artwork, history, and cases full of antique and unique art supplies.