Trade cards were an early form of collectible advertising. The advent of lithography in the 1870s opened the possibilities for large-scale production of highly coloured, very detailed images, and companies and retailers took advantage of the eye-catching technique. Trade cards usually featured an image on one side and an advertisement on the other. Calling cards, religious sentiment cards, and greeting cards also featured colourful lithographic techniques, and many people collected these ephemera in scrapbooks. Popular themes printed on the cards took advantage of the colourful lithographic process, and featured tropical birds, flowers, animals, romantic imagery, and scenes from fable and fairy tale. Romantic, Orientalist, and racist themes are all also common.
The materials in this collection are scrapbooks of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century trade cards. The cards in volumes 1-3 are mainly for Rochester, New York manufacturers and merchants and in volume 4 for New York City businesses. These small cards advertise such products as soap, clothing, shoes, food, jewelry and medicines and are illustrated with idealized views of children engaged in various activities and stereotypical depictions of ethnic and racial groups. Other popular subjects are animals and nature. Volume 5 contains cards from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.
Each trade card in Volume 1 has been listed in a database by name of company, address, product, and a brief description of the picture. Volume 2 has been partially listed. The database is currently only available on site in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.
The trade cards in Volumes 6-17 date from 1880-1889 and include greeting cards, calling cards, some samples of printed wallpaper, cards given as merit awards for schoolchildren, invitations, and some illustrations which may have been cut from larger posters or advertisements. The locations of most of the cards place them in Western New York (Oneida, Buffalo, Rochester, Oswego, Fulton, and others), or in New York City. Numerous families and names are included.
Box 1 contains loose cards which were collected by the donors but which were not part of the present bound scrapbooks.
The Trade Card Scrapbooks is open for research use. Researchers are advised to contact the Rare Books, Special Collections & Preservation Department prior to visiting. Upon arrival, researchers will also be asked to fill out a registration form and provide photo identification.
Gifts of Walter Cassebeer (1931); Robert Baron (2009); Victor Markiewicz (1998), with additional purchases
In consultation with a curator, reproductions may be made upon request. Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from a curator. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions.
[Item title, item date], Trade Card Scrapbooks, D.307, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Gift of Walter H. Cassebeer, 1931.
Creator unknown. The majority of content is from manufacturers and merchants in Rochester, New York. Each trade card in Volume 1 has been listed in a database by name of company, address, product, and a brief description of the image. The database is currently only available on site in the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation.
Gift of Walter H. Cassebeer, 1931.
Creator unknown. The majority of content is from manufacturers and merchants in Rochester, New York. The contents of Volume 2 have been partially listed in a database by name of company, address, product, and a brief description of the image. The database is currently only available on site in the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation. Pages 47 and 48 hold Soapine / Kendall Manufacturing Co. trade cards designed by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Gift of Walter H. Cassebeer, 1931.
The majority of content is from manufacturers and merchants in Rochester, New York.
Nearly all cards are from New York City and Brooklyn merchants and manufacturers; some hand-drawn cards and some child's scribbling throughout.
Gift of Robert Baron, 2009.
Purchase, 2017
The creator of this scrapbook is unknown. The book contains 228 advertising trade cards and other chromolithograph ephemera apparently collected at the Chicago World's Fair. Included are images of a number of Fair buildings and exhibits. The starch exhibit of T. Kingsford & Son of Oswego, designed by Claude Bragdon is represented along with Swift & Company; Pears' Soap; several piano manufacturers of pianos, lard, sewing machines, and glue; Nestle's; Corticelli Spool Silk; Libby, McNeill & Libby; Wolfe's Schnapps; Milwaukee Harvester Company; Foos Manufacturing Co.; C. M. Henderson & Co.; Heinz; Buckeye Incubator; Phelps, Dodge & Palmer shoes and more.
Gift of Victor Markiewicz, 1998.
Trade cards, greeting cards, calling cards, cut-outs of contemporary illustration, and more. Some locations noted include Clyde, Palmyra, and Syracuse, NY.
Among an array of greeting and trade cards including illustrations of the normal birds, animals, flowers, children, fable themes, racist caricatures, idealized country life, Christmas and religious imagery, etc. is also a full-length two-colour portrait of Oscar Wilde, "compliments of Ehrich Bros."
Most cards are from New York City, with additional notable representation from Troy, NY.
Gift of Victor Markiewicz, 1998.
Most of the trade cards in this scrapbook are from Syracuse, NY. Also included are a number of wallpaper samples and cut-outs from larger illustrations.
Gift of Victor Markiewicz, 1998.
The cards pasted into this scrapbook are largely illustrated rewards for merit awarded to various children of the Tolman (var. spelling) family, including Susie, Gardiner, Tommy, and Charlie. There are also a large number of calling cards, and a collection of larger illustrations which have been tipped in with corner holders rather than pasted fully to the album pages.
Gift of Victor Markiewicz, 1998.
Trade cards with illustrations of children, flowers and plants, and many Christian themes and morals.
Gift of Victor Markiewicz, 1998.
The pages of the scrapbook are loose, highly acidified, and very brittle. Extra care should be taken with handling.
The cards in this scrapbook are largely greeting cards and cards with religious themes. One card of note has an elaborate fringe border. Printing locations are largely not noted. Many pages have been left blank.
This scrapbook has "Valentines" written in pencil in the top corner of the front pastdown. The cards are largely greeting cards, with some religious cards included, and include a number of highly ornate lace-type punched-paper cards. Some loose examples have been placed in protective sleeves.
Gift of Victor Markiewicz, 1998.
Smaller scrapbook with the pastedown inscription, "Christmas 1882, Presented to Lucy V. Chadwick, with love, L. M." The trade cards pasted in largely feature illustrations of animals and girls and are largely from Utica, NY.
Gift of Victor Markiewicz, 1998.
A larger-format scrapbook of trade cards, mostly from Utica, NY, featuring birds, children, racehorses, romantic scenes, the "exotic," and racist depictions of people of color. Included on the front pastedown is a very small intricate tapestry of a hunt scene with the inscription, "Woven in silk by Thomas Stevens, inventor and manufacturer, Coventry and London, (Registered.)"
Gift of Victor Markiewicz, 1998.
A larger-format scrapbook of mostly seasonal and holiday greeting cards. Locations and dates are not noted. The cover has a large print of an oil painting of three women in the "rustic waif" tradition also popular on many trade cards.
Gift of Victor Markiewicz, 1998.
A larger-format scrapbook of trade cards, marked postage stamps, invitation cards, and flags of European countries and colonies. Front flyleaf has the inscription, "Miz [sic] Edith White, from Aunt Jane, December 25/82."
Gift of Victor Markiewicz, 1998.
Single folder of contents from a scrapbook which has fallen apart. Both covers and six pages are included. Contents are small-format Valentine's themed calling cards, with examples of lace punched-paper detailing and brightly colored inks. Locations and dates not noted.
Gift of Victor Markiewicz, 1998.
Loose trade and calling cards. Some have signs of having previously been pasted into scrapbooks.
Gift of Victor Markiewicz, 1999.