Trade Card for Gourlay Brothers & Co., Shirt Makers and Importers Men's Furnishing Goods, 1875-1890

THF215264 / Trade Card for Gourlay Brothers & Co., Shirt Makers and Importers Men's Furnishing Goods, 1875-1890
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Artifact Overview

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 Details

Artifact

Trade card

Date Made

1875-1890

Subject Date

1875-1890

Location

Not on exhibit to the public.

Object ID

00.1430.18

Credit

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

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Technique

Lithography
Printing (Process)

Color

Multicolored

Dimensions

Height: 4.5 in
Width: 3 in

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    Grand Rapids, Michigan -- currently the second largest city in the state -- was incorporated in 1850. Its location along the Grand River allowed the city to flourish throughout the late 1800s. Back then, trade cards were a popular medium for advertising goods and services. This set of trade cards -- ranging from the sentimental to the comical to the more straightforward -- highlights entrepreneurial companies in Grand Rapids during this time.