W. M. Cline, Co. was established in 1938 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The company was founded by Walter Matson Cline, Jr. (1914-1984) who had learned photographer from his father, Walter M. Cline, Sr. (1873-1941). The elder Cline came to Chattanooga in 1904 and, in 1910, established Cline Studios, producing commercial photographs for newspapers and advertisement. Cline is estimated to have taken more than 75,000 pictures and provided the Community Advertising Association with 3,000 images used to promote Chattanooga. It was W.M. Cline, Jr. who established the company that produced these postcards, many using images made by father and son. After running a black and white operation for several decades, in 1958, Cline opened a color plant that could print 6,000 postcards per hour from more than 30,000 stock negatives.