Trade Card for Columbus Buggy Company, circa 1893

01

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

circa 1893

Subject Date

1492

Creator Notes

Product manufactured by Columbus Buggy Company, Columbus Ohio. Product sold by retailer John Bladon & Son, Toledo, Ohio. Card printed by Krebs Lithographic Company, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Location

Not on exhibit to the public.

Object ID

89.0.541.270

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Technique

Lithography
Printing (Process)

Color

Multicolored

Dimensions

Height: 3.75 in
Width: 6 in

Inscriptions

Print reads: COLUMBUS PRESENTING TO THE KING AND QUEEN OF SPAIN TROPHIES SECURED IN THE NEW WORLD 1492. COMPLIMENTS OF THE COLUMBUS BUGGY CO. COLUMBUS, OHIO. Stamped: FOR SALE BY JOHN BLADEN & SON, TOLEDO, OHIO. Reverse reads: DO YOU KNOW THAT THE COLUMBUS BUGGY CO., OF COLUMBUS, OHIO, HAVE ESTABLISHED SUCH A REPUTATION FOR THEIR VEHICLES THAT A NUMBER OF MANUFACTURERS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY HAVE ADOPTED THE PLAN OF FURNISHING THEIR DEALERS WITH NAME PLATES TO PUT ON THEIR VEHICLES THAT WILL APPEAR AS MUCH LIKE THE GENUINE COLUMBUS BUGGY CO. NAME PLATE AS THEY CAN GET WITHOUT USING THEIR EXACT PLATE...ASK YOURSELF THE FOLLOWING: DO IMITATORS COUNTERFEIT INFERIOR ARTICLES? COLUMBUS BUGGY CO. COLUMBUS, OHIO. GEO. M. PETERS. C.D. FIRESTONE. O.G. PETERS. The reverse also shows an example or the Columbus Buggy Co. name plate.
Trade Card for Columbus Buggy Company, circa 1893