#vintage advertising cards

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Liebig Company's Fleisch-Extract, Trade Card, Miezchens erste Schlittenfahrt, c.1880s. by Halloween HJB Via Flickr: "Kitty's First Sleigh Ride"

[holmesoldfellow]

Advertisements for the Sherlock Holmes card game by Parker Brothers (1904)

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Wacky Packages stickers - art by Norman Saunders and Art Spiegelman (Topps, 1967)

[goshyesvintageads]

United States Playing Card Co, 1952

[detroitlib]

View of an advertising card for J.V. Lisee, depicting a cat watching a butterfly on a shoe. Printed on front: "School shoes a specialty. High and medium-cut home manufactured. J.V. Lisee, 146 Woodward Ave. Lowest prices guaranteed."

Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library

[gameraboy2]

1977 Master Charge ad

[heaveninawildflower]

Trade card 'Flora Autumnalis' (American, 1889).

From the 'Goddesses of the Greeks and Romans' series by William S. Kimball & Company.

Lithography by Ketterlinus Lithography Company.

Image and text information courtesy The Met.

[misforgotten2]

You should have used your Master Charge to buy some condoms.

[stone-cold-groove]

American corporate synergy - a 60s era Holiday Inn and Gulf Oil Corporation postcard.

[thepopculturearchivist]

LITERARY DIGEST, November 24, 1928

[vintageadsmakemehappy]

1951 Gibson Valentines Cards

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Liebig Company's Fleisch-Extract, Trade Card, Miezchens erste Schlittenfahrt, c.1880s. by Halloween HJB Via Flickr: "Kitty's First Sleigh Ride"

[digitalnewberry]

Tricks of the trade card

John M. Wing Foundation printing ephemera collection

Trade cards—perhaps best described as a mash-up of a business card and advertisement—were popular throughout the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. The Newberry holds about two dozen collections of such cards, including specimens from England, Belgium, France, and America.... Trade cards also offer a window onto pre-Mad-Men-era marketing strategies (or lack thereof). The choice of text and imagery could be a bit random—questionable, even. For example, the Leipig Company used a passage from Hamlet in an advertisement for their Meat Extract; in retrospect, it seems a rather dubious decision to associate a food product with a scene describing poison. Another trade card advertising cough syrup shows children preparing the medicine by heating two kittens in a skillet. With its strange mix of Victorian sentimentality and (hopefully) dark humor, the card nevertheless endorses two universal truths: cats are like medicine and children should generally be supervised in the kitchen...

Advertising trade cards, 1860-1905

Read the full post by Jill Gage, the Newberry's Custodian of the John M. Wing Foundation on the History of Printing and Bibliographer for British Literature and History

Browse uncataloged 😶 trade cards at Newberry Digital Collections

Help to catalog 😀 trade cards at Postcard Tag, our crowdsourcing project

[cerealkiller740]

1953 Milky Way Valentine’s Day ad

[goshyesvintageads]

Molson Brewery, 1958

[detroitlib]

View of an advertising card for A.W. Lowell, depicting a woman knitting in front of fireplace. Cat plays with a spool of thread. Printed on front: "Florence. The soft finish peerless knitting silk." Printed on back: "Jas. Lowrie & Sons, a full line of dress goods, ribbons, lace, hosiery and gloves always on hand. Nos. 150 & 152 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Mich. We recommend 'Corticelli' spool silk."

Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library