Trade Card, Foster, Stevens & Co., Carry a Full Line of Roller Skates, 1870-1890

Summary

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.

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

Trade card

Date Made

1870-1890

Subject Date

1870-1890

Creators

Foster, Stevens & Company 

J.H. Bufford & Sons 

Place of Creation

United States, Michigan, Grand Rapids 

United States, New York, New York 

Creator Notes

Advertised products sold by Foster, Stevens & Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. Card lithographed by J. H. Bufford & Sons in New York, New York

 On Exhibit

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

00.1430.17

Credit

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

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Color

Multicolored

Dimensions

Height: 2.75 in

Width: 4.5 in

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