Trade Card for Clark's Mile-End Spool Cotton, Clark's O.N.T., 1880-1890

Summary

In the last third of the nineteenth century, an unprecedented variety of consumer goods and services flooded the American market. Advertisers, armed with new methods of color printing, bombarded potential customers with trade cards. Americans enjoyed and often saved the vibrant little advertisements found in product packages or distributed by local merchants. Many survive as historical records of commercialism in the United States.

In the last third of the nineteenth century, an unprecedented variety of consumer goods and services flooded the American market. Advertisers, armed with new methods of color printing, bombarded potential customers with trade cards. Americans enjoyed and often saved the vibrant little advertisements found in product packages or distributed by local merchants. Many survive as historical records of commercialism in the United States.

Artifact

Trade card

Date Made

1880-1890

Subject Date

1880-1890

Creators

Clark's O.N.T. (Firm) 

Donaldson Brothers (Firm) 

Place of Creation

United States, New Jersey, Newark 

United States, New York, Five Points 

Creator Notes

Products manufactured by Clark's O.N.T., Newark, New Jersey. Card printed by Donaldson Brothers, Five Points, New York.

 On Exhibit

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

89.0.541.188

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Technique

Printing (Process)

Color

Multicolored

Dimensions

Height: 2.75 in

Width: 4.5 in

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