Details
Title Golden Cottolene, N.K. Fairbanks & Co. Chicago. [graphic].
Publisher [Chicago] : Shoaer & Carqueville
Publisher ILL. Chicago. 1885
Date [ca. 1885]
Physical Description 1 print : chromolithograph ; sheet 13 x 9 cm (5 x 3.5 in.)
Description Racist trade card illustration depicting a short-haired African American girl picking cotton. Surrounding the image are cotton leaves, buds, and bolls. The girl carries a large, overflowing bale of cotton in the skirt of her apron and stands on her left leg while kicking her right leg outward. Visible in the right corner of the image is a tin bucket of Golden Cottolene. The girl is attired in a red and blue striped collared dress, a yellow striped apron, red socks, and black heeled boots. She is depicted with exaggerated features. Golden Cottolene shortening was was manufactured by N.K. Fairbank & Co., which was based in Chicago during the late 19th century and purchased by American Cotton Oil in 1875. The manufacturing plant in Chicago was closed in 1921.
Notes Title from item.
Advertising text on verso: Directions for using Fairbank's Cottolene. Health! Purity! Economy! Cottolene, the new and popular health food, is rapidly superseding lard and butter as a cooking fat, being healthier, cleaner and more economical. Use in every place and in the same manner that lard and butter is used in cooking, taking only two-thirds (2/3) of the amount that would be required of the above mentioned articles. If more is used it is wasted. For cake making treat in the same manner as butter, i.e., creaming it with sugar, adding a little salt, for Cottolene contains none. For frying put the Cottolene in a cold pan or kettle allowing the fat to gradually come to a cooking point. This will prevent burning. Cottolene reaches a cooking point without any sputtering or smoking and quicker than lard with the same heat, and therefore care should be taken that it does not become too hot. Beware of imitations. The N.K. Fairbank Co. Chicago, St. Louis, New York, Boston, Philadelphia & Montreal. Recipe for New England Doughnuts. 1 cup sugar. 2 eggs beaten light and mixed with the sugar. 2 teaspoonfuls melted Cottolene. 1/2 cup milk. 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder. 1/2 teaspoonful salt. 1 salt-spoonful cinnamon. Flour enough to roll. Add the milk alternately with the flour. Have the kettle three-quarters (3/4) full of Cottolene, hot enough to brown a piece of bread in half a minute, or while you count sixty. Drop in the doughnuts and fry till brown.
Gift of David Doret.
Subject Fairbank, Nathaniel Kellogg, 1829-1903.
African American agricultural laborers.
African American girls -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Cotton industry -- Illinois -- Chicago.
Cotton pickers.
Food industry -- Illinois -- Chicago.
Racism in popular culture.
Genre Chromolithographs. -- 1880-1890.
Trade cards. -- 1880-1890.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Goldman Trade Card Collection - N.K. Fairbanks [P.2017.95.137]
Accession number P.2017.95.137

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