Details
Title Old processee starchee no goodee. It smellee rots & makee shirts yellee.” "I will never use any other but the New Process Starch." New Process Starch. Manufactured only by the Firmenich Manufacturing Company, Peoria, Ill. [graphic].
Publisher Chicago : Shober & Carqueville
Date [ca. 1885]
Physical Description 1 print : chromolithograph ; sheet 11 x 8 cm (4.25 x 3 in)
Description Trade card promoting Firmenich Manufacturing Company and depicting a racist caricature of a Chinese man laundry worker contrasted in a split panel with a white women doing laundry. In the left, the Chinese man, wearing a queue hairstyle and attired in a white tunic and pants and blue cloth slip-on shoes, stands and irons a shirt on a table. He speaks in pidgin English, “Old processee starchee no goodee. It smelle rots and make shirts yellee.” On the floor are two boxes of “Old Process Gloss Starch.” On the table is a bowl of steaming water. A teapot heats on the stove behind him, and clothes hang on the clothesline. In the right, the white woman, attired in a pink dress with a white bow around the neck and white cuffs, stands behind the table ironing. She says, “I will never use any other but the new process starch.” A young white boy hands her a box of “New Process” starch, and two additional boxes lie on the floor in the right. On the table is a bowl of water. A tea kettle steams behind her on the stove. Buildings are visible through a window in the background. Dr. Joseph Firmenich (1828-1903) started a starch company with his two sons, George and Frank. The Firmenich Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1884. The Company opened a glucose plant in Marshalltown, Iowa in 1887. The Company operating into the 20th century.
Notes Title from item.
Date inferred from dates of operation of business advertised.
Advertising text printed on verso: New process starch. This starch is manufactured by a new process, with pure spring water. The light starch and gluten usually found in other starches, especially if made from white corn, are entirely removed and manufactured into other articles. The patents of this process are owned solely by this company. We guarantee all our starch perfectly pure and sweet. This starch, having the light starch and gluten removed, one-third less can be used than any other in the market. Ask your grocer for the new process gloss and corn starch and take no other. Manufactured only by the Firmenich Manufacturing Company. Peoria, Ill.
Gift of Linda Kimiko August.
RVCDC
Subject Firmenich Manufacturing Company.
Boys.
Chinese -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Cleaning establishments
Clotheslines.
Ethnic stereotypes.
Irons (Pressing).
Laundries.
Laundries (Rooms & spaces)
Laundry.
Laundry workers.
Men -- Chinese.
Pidgin English.
Racism in popular culture.
Starch industry -- Illinois -- Chicago.
Women.
Queue (Hairstyle)
AAPI.
Women.
Genre Chromolithographs -- 1880-1890.
Trade cards -- 1880-1890.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| trade cards – Firmenich [P.2023.43.2]
Accession number P.2023.43.2

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