Victorian Trade Cards , ca. 1910

File — Box: 72, Folder: 8-9

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Series:

Materials in the Heritage Tourism Collectibles series are organized by material type and further arranged alphabetically. There are four subseries; Booklets, Calendars, Ephemera, and Postcards. Booklets and calendars are listed by the title of the publication. Booklets include a wide range of topics including building materials, decoration and historic homes. Postcards were originally housed in both file folders and in albums and arranged by location which is the reason for duplicate location listings.

Dates

Creation: ca. 1910

Conditions Governing Access

Researchers are asked to request materials 24 hours prior to visiting the the University Archives.

Biographical / Historical

Victorian trade cards are an early form of collectible advertising. Popularized after the Civil War by businesses, they offer a colorful and diverse look at popular culture and society in the late 1800s. Trade cards originated in England in the 1700s with tradesmen advertising their wares. But the advent of lithography in the 1870s made it possible to mass-produce them in color, leading to a golden age from 1876 to the early 1900s.

Extent

From the Collection: 48 Linear Feet (70 archive boxes, 1 halfsize archive box, 1 record center carton, 1 photograph box, 3 oversize folders, 3 oversized, 3 clamshell boxes, 5 objects)