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- Title
- The Union Business College [certificate]
- Description
- Receipt certificate for the Philadelphia business school, later renamed Peirce Business College, containing a vignette depicting the allegorical figure of Columbia. She holds a fasces and laurel wreath. Also contains a blank space (for a stamp) framed with an ornate border and a pictorial detail designed as a medal engraving., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Leonhardt relocated his establishment to 114 South Third Street in 1868.
- Date
- [ca. 1868]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums - Specimens Album [P.9349.216b]
- Title
- " Bixby's Royal Polish." The perfection of blacking for ladies' and children's shoes
- Description
- Trade card promoting S.M. Bixby & Co. and depicting a racist caricature of a Chinese woman kneeling before Columbia holding up a woman's shoe. In the center, shows Columbia, depicted as a white woman attired in a blue Phrygian cap, white dress with a blue drape, and sandals, placing her left hand on an American flag crested shield. She holds aloft a black, woman's boot in her right hand, which emanates light. At her feet, a Chinese woman, wearing her hair up with decorative sticks and attired in a red dress decorated with a blue dragon, a white shawl, and red shoes, kneels on the ground with her right hand up as she looks up at the shoe and Columbia. The western-style woman's shoe is displayed as superior to and a critique of Chinese footbinding. In the right, a group of six women look on, many attired in crowns and crests, likely meant to represent European countries. In the left background is an oversized black bottle labeled, "Bixby's Royal Polish." Samuel M. Bixby began manufacturing and selling shoe blacking in 1860 and founded S.M. Bixby & Co. in 1862. F.F. Dailey Corporation acquired the firm in 1920., Title from item., Date inferred from dates of operation of business advertised and active dates of the lithographers., Advertising text printed on verso: A new compound, producing a durable polish, elastic, waterproof and harmless to all kinds of leather, one coat of which is equal to two of any other. Bixby’s new bottle and combination stopper for sponge blacking is the most perfect package ever invented for forms of liquid blacking or shoe dressing. The wood top is of such size and shape as to form a convenient and firm handle; and the cork is inserted into the wood top, and fastened by the wire and glue, so that it is very much stronger than the old style. The bottle has a broad base and will not upset easily; the mouth has a wide projecting flange, and an air chamber below to prevent the overflow of the liquid in taking out and putting in the sponge, which perfectly insures cleanliness. “Royal Polish” is strictly a first class dressing, elegant in style, convenient for use, and is designed to retail at 15 cents per bottle, which in larger than the old square bottle. One trial will satisfy the most fastidious, that it is superior in all particulars to any dressing ever offered for ladies’ use. Patent applied for. S.M. Bixby & Co., New York., RVCDC
- Date
- [ca. 1885]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade cards - S.M. Bixby & Co. [P.2025.38]
- Title
- Enterprise Congress-World's Fair
- Description
- Trade card issued during the Columbian Exposition of 1893 promoting the Enterprise Maufacturing Company of Pennsylvania's meat choppers and depicting Uncle Sam demonstrating a meat chopper surrounded Columbia and people representing different nationalities. In the center, Uncle Sam chops meat by turning the handle of a meat chopper mounted to a table under which two pigs stand. In the right, Columbia, depicted as a white woman attired in a white dress with gold trim and a red sash, stands holding a gold staff topped with a star and places her right hand on Uncle Sam's shoulder. At her feet is a bald eagle with an American flag crested shield on its chest. In a left, a Scotsman, attired in tartan kilt, bends at the waist and watches the chopper grind meat onto a plate. Men stand and look on surrounding the table representing different nationalities, including an Irishman, Englishman, and a Chinese man, wearing a queue hairstyle and attired in a gold conical hat, blue shirt, and purple robe. Also includes partially visible exposition buildings in the background. The exposition held in Chicago May 1-October 30, 1898 celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pa. was established in 1866., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Copyright 1893 by Donaldson Brothers, Lith. N.Y., Several lines of advertising text printed on verso. Text promotes the excellence of the "Enterprise Meat Choppers" in not tearing or grinding, but chopping the meat so devoid of "strings, sinew, fibers or gristle"; foods able to be chopped, including sausage meat, peppers, corn for fritters, coconut, and "Beef Tea for invalids"; the design of the plates; and prices of different models ranging from $2.00 to $15.00, including No. 42, a "Pork only" chops 5 lb. per minute., Printed on verso: For Sale by the Hardware Trade. Send for Catalogue. The Enterprise M'f'g Co. of Pa., Third & Dauphin Sts., Philadelphia, U.S.A., Typeface on verso varies between prints., Vignette illustration on verso. Depicts an "Enterprise" meat chopper clamped to a table. Ground meat falls onto a plate., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Gift of Michael Zinman.
- Date
- 1893
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Michael Zinman World's Fairs Collection - Trade cards [P.2008.36.66]

