Trade Card for Diamond Dyes, Wells, Richardson & Co., 1880-1885

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

1880-1885

Subject Date

1880-1885

Creators

Gies & Co. 

O.P. Wilson (Firm) 

Wells, Richardson & Co. 

Place of Creation

United States, New Hampshire, Dunbarton 

United States, New York, Buffalo 

United States, Vermont, Burlington 

Creator Notes

Product made by Wells, Richardson & Co., Burlington, Vermont. Retailed by O.P. Wilson, Dunbarton, New Hampshire. Lithographed by Gies & Co., Buffalo, New York.

 On Exhibit

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

2012.78.2

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Jeanine Head Miller.

Material

Ink
Paper (Fiber product)

Technique

Lithography
Printing (Process)

Color

Multicolored

Dimensions

Height: 3.438 in

Width: 5 in

Related Content

Connect 3

Discover curious connections between artifacts.

Learn More