Trade Card for Stage Production "Zozo the Magic Queen," C.R. Gardiner, circa 1875

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

circa 1875

Subject Date

circa 1875

Creators

Gardiner, C. R. 

Hoyt, Henry E. 

Courier Company 

Place of Creation

United States, New York, Buffalo 

Creator Notes

Theater company managed by C. R. Gardiner. Theatrical scenery by Henry E. Hoyt. Lithography by Courier Company (Buffalo, New York).

 On Exhibit

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

86.13.2.30

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Dorothy Guimaraes

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Color

Multicolored

Dimensions

Height: 3 in

Width: 5.25 in

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