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 th epants 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. Plants line the window sill. A candelabrum 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.
Several lines of advertising text printed on verso. Verso is defaced and text is illegible.
Gift of David Doret.
Subject Merrick Thread Co.
African American men -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Older people.
Sewing.
Thread industry -- Massachusetts -- Holyoke.
Genre Racism in popular culture.
Thread.
Chromolithographs -- 1880-1890.
Trade cards -- 1880-1890.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Goldman Trade Card Collection - Merrick [P.2017.95.122]
Accession number P.2017.95.122