The Winterthur Library
The Joseph Downs Collection
of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera
Henry Francis du Pont
5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur,
Delaware 19735
Telephone: 302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883
OVERVIEW OF
THE COLLECTION
Title: Trade Cards and Labels Collection
Dates: ca. 1734-ca. 1932.
Call No.: Col. 9
Acc. No.: [various see Access
database]
Quantity: 17 boxes
Location: 18 A 3-6
HISTORICAL
STATEMENT
Trade cards were used to advertise a business or a
product. They evolved from cards of the
late 1700s used by tradesmen to advertise their services, and although examples
from the early 1800s exist, it was not until the spread of color lithography in
the 1870s that trade cards became plentiful.
By the 1880s, trade cards had become a major way of advertising
Americas goods and services. In
addition to producing depictions for specific kinds of goods, at the end of the
19th century, printers issued a wide variety of stock images which
could be imprinted with the name of the business or product. These stock images did not necessarily have
anything to do with the product being sold.
Besides being an advertising vehicle, trade cards were collected. When people went to their favorite stores,
they frequently brought back attractive, brightly colored trade cards,
available for the asking and usually displayed on store counters, and pasted
them into their scrapbooks. The
popularity of trade cards peaked around 1890, and then almost completely faded
by the early 1900s when other forms of marketing, including magazine
advertisements, became more cost effective.
Craftspeople, especially furniture makers, pasted
their trade labels directly onto their products. They were mostly made of paper and contained
the name and address of the craftsperson and often depictions of what they
made. By recording his name on a
product, the craftsperson enhanced his reputation, indicated to retailers what
he could supply, and at least implied to buyers that he would stand behind his
work. Trade labels frequently replicated
newspaper and city directory advertisements.
SCOPE AND
CONTENT
This artificial and still open collection contains thousands of trade cards and labels that advertise a variety of products, including house furnishings, toys and games, jewelry, horse equipage, gas appliances, foodstuffs, hardware, sewing products, paints, medicines, personal goods, etc. Service oriented businesses, such as commission merchants and insurance companies, also advertised through the collection's cards and labels. There are also stock cards that were used by advertisers of different products. Many of the cards are in color and feature ornate designs. Most of the cards and labels are from the eastern United States and some originated in Europe.
The chief access to this collection is through an
Access database, available at this repository.
Through that, one can search for the name of a particular business, a
product, a service, location of business, or name of printer. This finding aid is intended solely to get
the user from the Access entry to the correct box in which to find the desired
cards.
ORGANIZATION
A listing of firms, addresses, products advertised,
dates, printers, subject headings and descriptions is available on Access
software at this repository. Trade cards
are filed by subject.
Many of the cards are loose, while others are
mounted in volumes. The loose cards are
arranged by size (smaller ones in Boxes 1-6; larger ones in Boxes 7-9) and then
are divided by type of business. Box 10
contains cards that have pictures but no advertisements printed on them. Boxes 11-17 contain albums of trade cards and
some very large cards which did not fit into Boxes 7-9.
An index to volume 15 and to accession number 80x122 are available at this repository. However, these have also been put into the Access database and are more easily found from searching that.
LANGUAGE OF
MATERIALS
The materials are primarily in English.
RESTRICTIONS
ON ACCESS
Collection is open to the public. Copyright restrictions may apply.
PROVENANCE
Gifts and purchases from various sources.
ACCESS POINTS
[access points
are the subject headings used in the on-line catalog; see list headed Subject
headings for headings used to arrange the cards in the collection]
Topics:
Advertising cards - United
States.
Advertising cards - Europe.
Amusements.
Artists' materials.
Artists.
Booksellers and bookselling.
Stationery.
Card games.
Carpenters.
Clocks and watches
Clothing and dress.
Commercial products.
Commission merchants.
Department stores.
Dyes and dyeing.
Drugstores.
Food.
Floor coverings.
Footwear.
Furniture.
Gardening.
Gas appliances.
Grocers.
Hair.
Hardware.
Hotels.
House furnishings.
Ink.
Insurance.
Jewelry.
Machinery industry.
Medicine.
Metal-work.
Mirrors.
Musical instruments.
Paint.
Perfumes.
Picture frames and framing.
Photography.
Pottery.
Glassware.
Printing plants.
Publishers and publishing.
Recreation - Equipment and supplies.
Restaurants.
Scientific apparatus and instruments.
Sewing.
Sign painting.
Silver.
Silver-plated ware.
Soap.
Stone industry and trade.
Stove industry and trade.
Textile fabrics.
Tobacco.
Travel.
Trunks (Luggage)
Vehicles.
Wall hangings.
Trade cards.
DETAILED
DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION
Location: 18 A
3-6
Note: The list
of subject headings used to divide the cards into categories is found at the
end of this finding aid.
Boxes 1-6: Small trade cards [see note above]
Boxes 7-9:
Large trade cards [see note above]
Box 10
Blank cards (pictures, but no advertisements)
Box 11
Vol. 1 (69x24)
Vol. 2 (81x275)
Vol. 3 (83x35)
Vol. 4 (83x37)
Box 12
Vol. 5 (68x176)
Vol. 6 (83x36)
71x248
Box 13
Vol. 7 (83x38)
Vol. 8 (84x144.1)
Box 14
Vol. 9 (84x144.2)
61x72
66x75
69x165
72x304
74x144
74x310
77x52.1-3
79x161
79x162
81x147
82x142
82x166
83x50
86x182.1-.14
92x162.94-.95
Box 15
Vol. 10 (84x144.3)
Vol. 13 (77x543)
77x107
81x345
82x100.1-.3
82x279
82x280
84x42.2-.7
Box 16
Vol. 11 (68x87)
Vol. 12 (87x184)
78x210
78x211
78x212
78x213
78x214
Vol. 15 (65x572)
91x108
SUBJECT
HEADINGS USED FOR TRADE CARDS COLLECTION:
Adhesives [ includes glue, cement, mucilage]
Amusements
Antiques
Architects
Artists
Artists materials
Automobile industry and trade
Beds; bedding
Beverages
Book industries and trade
Building materials [ includes lumber, cement,
piping]
Cards
Carpenters
Chemicals
Cleaning [ includes carpet sweepers and cleaners]
Clocks and watches [ see also Jewelry and Silver]
Clothing and dress
[ see also Department stores/dry-goods and Textile fabrics]
Commercial products
Commission merchants
Confectionery
Containers [ includes baskets, boxes, bags]
Cork
Cosmetics
Decoration and ornament
Department stores; Dry-goods
Dress accessories
Drugstores [ see also Medicine]
Dyes and dyeing
Education
Farm equipment [ incudes plows, large mowers,
haying equipment, feed]
Fertilizers
Fire extinction
Floor coverings
Flowers
Food
Footwear
Fuel
Furniture
Gardening
Gas appliances
Glass
Groceries [ these just list groceries for sale, no
specific items; see also Food]
Hair [ incudes shampoo, hair tonic and oil,
hairdressers, hair for sale]
Hardware [- incudes nails, bits, locks and keys,
files, tools, bolts, nuts]
Hats
Hides and skins [ incudes tanners, curriers,
leather goods]
Horses equipment and supplies [ incudes saddle,
harness, bridles, horse liniment]
Hotels
House furnishings [ incudes blinds and window
shades]
Ink
Insurance
Jewelry [ see also Silver and Clocks and watches]
Laundry
Lawn mowers
Libraries
Lighting
Machinery industry
Medicine [ see also Drugstores]
Metal-work [ incudes bar iron, fencing, kettles and
other metalware, tinware, kitchen utensils]
Mines and mineral resources
Mirrors
Miscellaneous
Music [ incudes pianos, organs, sheet music, music
and singing lessons]
Office equipment and supplies [ incudes
typewriters]
Paint [ i.e. house paint; see Artists materials
for art paint]
Painters [ house, sign, coach, decorative, and
architectural painters]
Paper
Perfumes
Periodicals
Photography
Picture frames and framing
Plumbing
Pottery
Printing [ incudes engravers, job printers]
Professions
[ i.e. non-tradesmen: attorneys, sheriffs, etc.]
Recreation [ incudes fishing tackle, guns,
bicycles]
Refrigeration
Restaurants
Rope
Rubber goods
Scientific apparatus and instruments [ incudes
spectacles, scales and weights, thermometers]
Sewing [ incudes sewing machines, thread, yarn]
Silver [ see also Jewelry and Clocks and watches]
Soap
Societies
Stationery [ incudes cards of all sorts, pens,
pencils, writing paper]
Stone industry and trade
Stoves; Heating [ incudes stoves, ranges, stove
polish]
Taverns (Inns)
Textile fabrics [ see also Clothing and dress, and
Department stores/dry goods]
Tobacco
Toys
Travel [ incudes steamships, coaches for hire]
Trunks (luggage)
Undertakers and undertaking
Vehicles
Wall hangings [ includes wallpaper]
Washing-machines
Wood [ also wooden products]