Trade Card for Standard Screw-Fastened Boots & Shoes, American Co-Operative Boot & Shoe Co., circa 1886

In the last third of the nineteenth century, an unprecedented variety of consumer goods flooded the American market. Some enterprising advertisers sought to distinguish their products from the competition, distributing trade cards that incorporated a puzzle or game. Americans enjoyed and often saved the popular little advertisements, which survive as historical records of consumerism in the United States.