Trade Card for Dutcher's Lightning Fly-Killer, 1870-1890

01

Artifact Overview

This trade card features a flypaper knight vanquishing a huge fly. Dutcher's, a chemical company based in St. Albans's, Vermont, marketed its Lightning Fly-Killer by promising "annihilation of the buzzy tormentors." Consumers used Dutcher's and other popular brands of arsenical flypapers by soaking the paper in a dish of water for flies to drink. But arsenic was dangerous for humans, too, and flypaper caused some accidental fatalities.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Trade card

Date Made

1870-1890

Subject Date

1870-1890

Creator Notes

Advertised product made by Frederick Dutcher of Saint Albans, Vermont. Card made by Baker Co., Chicago, Illinois

Location

Not on exhibit to the public.

Object ID

89.0.541.597

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Color

Multicolored

Dimensions

Height: 3 in
Width: 5.25 in

Trade Card for Dutcher's Lightning Fly-Killer, 1870-1890