Premium Lage, this card was created by noted illustrator Louis Prang

TRADE CARDS TURN OF THE CENTURY ADVERTISING

Up until the 19th century there were really not any national grocery brands. Someone went to the store and they got whatever brand there was, if there was a brand name on the package. But in the 19th century and particularly after mid-century many different national brands of groceries, machinery, medicine and many other products started to appear on grocer's shelves.

 Once brands were created, they had to be advertised and there weren't that many ways to advertise. Newspapers were full of ads but manufacturers were looking for a new way to advertise and trade cards were the answer.

New, inexpensive advertising methods had been developed and these made trade cards quite inexpensive so manufacturers could give them away at minimal expense.

 The cards typically had a color illustration on one side and advertising copy on the other, sometimes a particular store was identified but usually it was just the brand name of the product and some copy extolling the virtues of the product.

Some manufacturers created new designs at least four times a year. The cards were given away with the purchase of the product to reward the customer's loyalty,or some were given away to anyone that wanted them. And plenty of people did want them, collecting advertising trade cards was a major fad in the late 19th century and the early part of the 20th. Many children had large collections but even adults collected them and pasted the cards into albums.

1900 school supplies prices

a telephone in your home is a necessity

Mrs. Winslow soothing syrup (also full of that lovely opium!)

1900 Ayer's Cherry Pectoral ( full of that healthy opium!)

Londonderry Lithia Water 1900 newspaper advertisment

This was actually not a quack medicine, the water had naturally occurring lithium in the water and this type of water is still available and some people think it has health properties.

some 1900 humor

Butterfly—Magnificent, sir! There are scenes in your comedy that Shakespeare himself could not have written.

Dapter---You are too kind, really.

Butterfly--“Not at all, sir. Take for instance, that railroad smash-up in the third act.

Brooklyn Life

“I guess Binx has just had a raise in salary.” Said the confirmed cynic.

“Has anybody told you so?”

“No. But he goes about saying he thinks the world is getting better, and that the danger from trusts is greatly magnified, and that human nature isn’t so bad after all. That’s the way a man nearly always talks just after he has had a raise in salary”

Washington Star

“Why did you take that $20 from the cash drawer?”

“Oh, I just wanted a little cab fare.”

“Great guns! You must be living in California.”

St Louis Republic

PASSING COUNTERFEIT MONEY

$2.50 SHOE FOR THE DISCERNING CUSTOMER

DID YOU KNOW GLUTEN IS GOOD FOR YOU?

KERN'S SUCCESS FLOUR

$10 DOWN PAYMENT FOR NEW HOUSE

IVORY, THE BATHER'S SOAP

UNCLE TOM'S CABIN ON THE STAGE

Dramatizations of this book were popular for decades, with people attending again and again. Note that the advertisement says this is the only legitimate production, but this is not true. Harriet Beecher Stowe never authorized any adaptation of her novel but copyright law was so lax at the time that she really just had to live with the productions, most of which were not that faithful to the book.