Trade Card for A.M.C. Perfect Cereals, Akron Milling Company, 1885-1895

This trade card uses the cachet of the home telephone to market oatmeal as a luxury product. In the 1880s telephones were still new and expensive, used only by businesses, hotels, and the affluent. On the trade card, a well-dressed woman calls the operator from her classic three box wall phone, urgently requesting AMC cereal products. The newest technologies lent an air of status to everyday products.