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Use Merrick's thread. "Gully this cotton beats 'em all!" [graphic].
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African American History Graphics Collection
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Details
Title
Use Merrick's thread. "Gully this cotton beats 'em all!" [graphic].
Publisher
[United States] : [publisher not identified]
Publisher
UNITED STATES. 1885
Date
[ca. 1885]
Physical Description
1 print : chromolithograph ; sheet 13 x 8 cm (5 x 3 in.)
Description
Racist trade card promoting Merrick thread and depicting a domestic scene of an older African American man sewing. Shows the man, in a cabin setting, seated atop a stool, his feet slightly turned in, and mending the seat of a pair of blue pants. The man holds the pants in his left hand and pulls a needle and thread through a patch on the pants in his right. The thread comes from a large spool beside the man which is marked with "Merrick Thread Co. Best Six Cord 8" logo. Behind the man is a window with a sill, which is lined with potted plants. A candle holder rests on a shelf attached to the wall below the window. The man is attired in a red button-down shirt, blue suspenders, brown pants, and brown shoes. Merrick Thread Co. was founded in 1865 by Timothy Merrick, Austin Merrick, and Origen Hall in Mansfield, Connecticut. After its founding, the company established mills in Holyoke, Massachusetts. In 1898, the company merged with thirteen other independent thread and yarn manufacturers to form the American Thread Company.
Notes
Title from item.
Date inferred from content and genre of print.
Advertising text printed on verso: Buy Merrick Thread Co's best six cord soft finish spool cotton for machine & hand sewing warranted 200 yds. also these threads are made from the finest quality of combed sea island cotton, and for strength, evenness, elasticity and smoothness surpass anything in the market. By the use of the "ready wound bobbins" the annoyance of winding the iron bobbin is done away with, and a more perfect stitch obtained. When in want of more thread, don't fail to ask for Merrick's.
See related copy: Goldman Trade Card Collection - Merrick [P.2017.95.122]
Gift of George Allen, 2022.
RVCDC
Subject
Merrick Thread Co.
African American men -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Older people.
Racism in popular culture.
Sewing.
Thread.
Thread industry -- Massachusetts -- Holyoke.
Genre
Chromolithographs -- 1880-1890.
Trade cards -- 1880-1890.
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Trade cards - M - Merrick [P.2022.42.10]
Accession number
P.2022.42.10
In Collections
African American History Prints and Watercolors and Drawings
Trade Card Collection
Printed and Graphic Ephemera
Race and Visual Culture Digital Collection, 1866-1900
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