Trade Card for Silver Leaf Lard, Swift & Company, 1870-1900

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

1880-1900

Subject Date

1880-1900

Creators

Swift & Company 

Place of Creation

United States, Illinois, Chicago 

United States, Nebraska, Omaha 

United States, Kansas, Kansas City 

Creator Notes

Swift & Company was based in Chicago, South Omaha, and Kansas City.

 On Exhibit

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

90.0.281.105

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Color

Multicolored

Dimensions

Height: 3.25 in

Width: 5.5 in

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