Racist trade card promoting Merrick thread. Depicts a scene showing an animal act managed by a bare-breasted African woman. The woman holds a thread in her right hand that is tied around the horn of the rhinoceros walking a tightrope. The rhinoceros balances on his left leg on the white tightrope attached to two intersecting poles on one end. The woman, her hair pulled into a bun and adorned with two red feathers, is attired in a white sarong, a gold hoop earring, and a gold bracelet on her left arm. She is depicted with exaggerated features. She holds a spiked club to the ground in her left hand. Behind the woman is a spool of thread which is marked with "Merrick Thread Co. Best Six Cord 8" logo. Print also contains an image on verso depicting a partially opened box of several spools of thread, on which the thread company's tagline "Merrick Thread Co's Ready Wound Bobbins for Sewing Machines Warranted 200 Yards" is printed. 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. The distributor, B.A. Glase's Son, was owned by John Oscar Glase, who inherited the business from his father Benneville A. Glase after his death in 1882., Title from item., Date inferred from content and genre of print., Advertising text printed on verso: Buy Merrick Thread Co.'s Best Six Cord Soft Finish Spool Cotton For Machine & Hand Sewing. Warranted 200 Yds. Also., Distributor's imprint printed on verso: B.A. Glase's Son, General Merchandise, Friedensburg, Pa., Gift of David Doret.
Date
[ca. 1885]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Merrick [P.2017.95.123]
Racist trade card depicting a comic scene showing an African American barber shaving a pig in a barber shop. The barber, in the left,is depicted holding a razor in his right hand and the pig's snout in his left. The man is attired in a white shirt with turned up collar, a black bowtie, a green and white checkered apron, and blue pants. The pig, seated chest out, leans back in the barber's chair. The animal wears a barber's cape. On a table next to the barber is a shaving mug filled with shaving foam and holding a shaving brush. The man is depicted with exaggerated features. W.M. Lyon worked as a jeweler in Chester Depot, Vermont beginning in 1877., Title from item., Date inferred from years of operation of business advertised.
Date
[ca. 1880]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Lyon [P.2017.95.111]
