Details
Contributor Detroit Lith. Co., printer
Title Muzzy's sun gloss starch. Elkhart Starch Co. [graphic].
Publisher Detroit : Detroit Lith. Co
Publisher MI. Detroit. 1890
Date [ca. 1890]
Physical Description 1 print : chromolithograph ; sheet 8 x 12 cm (3 x 5 in.)
Description Racist trade card promoting Elkhart Starch Company and depicting a domestic, genre scene of a white family and an African American woman domestic on wash day. The woman is portrayed as a caricaturized figure. Shows in the right, the women domestic, attired in a red and yellow head kerchief; gold earrings; and a blue and white dress with gold buttons and the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, standing behind a wooden table with an iron on it. She holds up a stiffly starched and unwrinkled white collared shirt in front of the well-dressed mother and her three children. The reflection of the mother is seen on the shirt. In front of the mother, her brown-haired older son , attired in a white collared shirt and a yellow jacket, points his finger at the shirt. To his right, his younger, brown-haired sister, attired in a yellow dress with white ruffles at the neck and sleeves, reaches both arms toward the shirt. Beside her, a cat sits up at the table and looks at the shirt. Between her and her brother, the older blond- haired sister, attired in a blue dress with white ruffles at the neck and sleeves, a yellow bowtie, and a red sash tied around her waist, hands a box labeled "sun gloss starch" to her mother. In the left, the young mother with long brown hair and attired in earrings; a necklace with a red pendant; and a red dress with white ruffles down the middle and at the sleeves; reaches her right hand out to the box of starch. She cluthches an ornate fan to her chest in her left hand. In the far left, through a doorway, the young father attired in a black jacket with tails; a white collared shirt; and white pants with blue stripes, holds a top hat, stands in a hallway, and looks into the room. A.L. Muzzy built the Muzzy & Sage Mill in Elkhart, Indiana in 1870. Albert R. Beardsley (1847-1924) purchased the mill in 1878 and founded the Elkhart Starch Company. The Company was bought by the National Starch in 1893.
Notes Title from item.
Advertising text printed on verso: "Elkhart Starch Co. Elkhart, Ind. Manufacture Muzzy's Sun Gloss refined & corn starch. Of superior quality, by a new process. A thorough test makes it a household necessity. Muzzys corn starch is the purest & best made. Capacity ten tons of starch per day." Includes an illustration of a train running past the Elkhart starch works manufactory.
Gift of David Doret.
Subject Elkhart Starch Company.
African American household employees -- Caricatures and cartoons.
African American women -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Boys.
Cats.
Families.
Girls.
Irons (Pressing).
Laundry.
Racism in popular culture.
Reflections.
Starch industry -- Indiana -- Elkhart.
Women domestics.
Genre Chromolithographs -- 1880-1890.
Trade cards -- 1880-1890.
Printer Detroit Lith. Co., printer
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Goldman Trade Card Collection - Elkhart [P.2017.95.56]
Accession number P.2017.95.56

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