Details
Contributor Hartzler, M.E., distributor.
Title Compliments of the Domestic Sewing Machine Co. [graphic].
Publisher [Cincinnati, Ohio?] : [publisher not identified]
Publisher OH. Cincinnati. 1880
Date [ca. 1880]
Physical Description 1 print : chromolithograph ; sheet 8 x 13 cm (3 x 5 in.)
Description Racist trade card promoting the Domestic Sewing Machine Company and depicting a comic genre scene of an older African American man peddler mistaken as a suitor. In the center, the older, balding peddler speaks to an African American family at the door of their cottage house. The man is portrayed with exaggerated features, wears spectacles, and is attired in a purple coat; a white shirt; yellow pants; and brown shoes. A goat eats red cloth pulled out from underneath his coat. On the ground in front of him is his top hat turned upside-down. Papers are placed inside of it. He leans forward to speak with the African American woman in the doorway. His hands are out like he is displaying an object. The woman wears mammy-like attire of a beige head kerchief; a yellow shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows; a blue shirt; and a white apron. She holds a broom. Behind her is another woman attired in a green dress and head kerchief. In the left are a young woman and a girl. The young woman is attired in a pink dress with a green ruffle at the bottom and cut-out shoulders, matching pink stockings, and a bow in her hair. She coquettishly holds a fan ornately decorated with pink flowers to the side of her face. The girl to her left is barefoot and attired in a white dress. In the right background are sunflowers behind a fence and the peddler's horse-drawn wagon loaded with boxes out of view of the family. William S. Mack & Co. and N.S. Perkins founded the Domestic Sewing Machine Company in 1864 in Norwalk, Ohio. The White Sewing Machine Company bought the company in 1924.
Notes Title from item.
Place of publication deduced from place of operation of advertised business.
Date inferred from history of the advertised business.
Distributor's imprint printed on verso: M.E. Hartzler's "Domestic" & "Royal St John" sewing machine office. In Odd Fellows Hall cor. Geo. & King Sts, (opposite Reevers tavern,) York, PA. Anything pertaining to sewing machines of every kind and make, furnished at this office. Repairing of all kinds of sewing machines a specialty.
Gift of David Doret.
Library Company holds duplicate copy [P.2017.95.48] and another with variant distributor [P.2017.95.47].
Subject Domestic Sewing Machine Co.
African American girls -- Caricatures and cartoons.
African American men -- Caricatures and cartoons.
African American women -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Carts & wagons.
Errors.
Goats.
Older people.
Peddlers.
Racism in popular culture.
Sewing machine industry -- Ohio -- Norwalk.
Genre Chromolithographs -- 1870-1880.
Trade cards -- 1870-1880.
Associated name Hartzler, M.E., distributor.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Goldman Trade Card Collection - Domestic [P.2017.95.46]
Accession number P.2017.95.46

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