Trade Card for Santa Claus Soap, N.K. Fairbank Co., 1899

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

1899

Subject Date

1899

Creators

N.K. Fairbank Company 

Gugler Lithographic Company 

Place of Creation

United States 

Creator Notes

Product made by N. K. Fairbank Company. Card printed by Gugler Lithographic Company.

 On Exhibit

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

00.1430.111

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Mrs. James R. Murphy

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Color

Multicolored

Dimensions

Height: 5.75 in

Width: 3.5 in

Connect 3

Discover curious connections between artifacts.

Learn More