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- Title
- Which wi[ll let go] first, the dog or the darkey
- Description
- Racist, trade card specimen depicting caricatures of two African American men stealing watermelons from a farm. Shows the barefooted, African American man, attired in a long-sleeved shirt and ragged pants, carrying a watermelon under each arm as he tries to get over a wooden fence. He has a fearful expression on his face as a dog has ripped and holds the back of his pants in its mouth. Another barefooted, African American man, attired in a long-sleeved shirt and striped pants, opens his mouth in alarm as he has fallen over the fence and landed face down with his legs in the air. The pieces of a smashed watermelon lie on the ground beside him. In the right background is a house and a white man, attired in a hat and carrying a rifle, moving towards the fence., Title from item., Date deduced from the visual content., Gift of David Doret.
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Misc. - Which [P.2017.95.211]
- Title
- Beauty on the street- front view. J.T. F[ritch], jobber & dealer in tobacco cigars, snuff, pipes &c. Main Street, Kurtztown, PA
- Description
- Racist trade card illustration depicting an African American woman walking her dog. The woman is attired in an elaborate feathered wide-brimmed top hat, a form-fitting jacket with a ruffled collar, a long skirt, petticoat, and boots. The woman holds an umbrella in her right hand and her dog's leash in her left. The dog appears to urinate behind a pole. The woman is depicted with exaggerated features. J.T. Fritch was a businessman based in Kurtztown, Pennsylvania who was trained as a printer, became a cigar manufacturer and dealer, and embarked on several other business ventures during the late 19th and early 20th centuries., Title from item., Printed in blue ink., Gift of David Doret.
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Tobacco [P.2017.95.176]
- Title
- Use Queen Anne Soap I'se a waiting
- Description
- Racist trade card illustration depicting a full length portrait of an African American woman walking a small brown dog. The woman is attired in an elaborate orange, yellow, and green feathered bonnet, a blue and red dotted and frilled dress with white and blue details, a pendant, white and yellow fingerless gloves, red stockings, and black heeled shoes. She holds the dog's leash and a red and blue fan in her left hand and a blue parasol in her right hand. Visible behind her is a large yellow ribbon which is attached to the back of her dress. The woman leans forward while jutting out her backside and stands with her right foot in front of her left. The woman is portrayed with exaggerated features. Queen Anne Soap was owned by the Detroit Soap Company, which in 1915 was acquired by the Buffalo-based Lautz Bros. & Co., Title from item., Date inferred from dates of operation of advertised business., Advertising text on recto: Purest and best in the world., Series number on recto: 58., Gift of David Doret.
- Date
- [ca. 1890]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Queen [P.2017.95.145]
- Title
- Gately & Britton, (limited,) largest installment house in Reading, no. 940 Penn Street
- Description
- Racist trade card promoting Gately & Britton's home furnishing store in Reading, Pa. and depicting a caricature of an African American boy sitting against a fence post eating a large slice of watermelon. Shows the boy squatting on his toes and smiling at the viewer as he holds a piece of watermelon in both hands. He has taken the melon out of a field of watermelon plants surrounded by a barbed wire fence. He is attired in a torn straw hat, blue shorts with a patch, and only the partial sleeves of a red and white striped shirt. The rest of the shirt has ripped and hangs from the barbed wire in the left. On the ground in the left is the watermelon with a slice cut from it with the handle of a knife protuding out of it. In the right is a small, white and brown dog. Edward Gately and G.M. Britton established a home furnishings store called Gately & Britton at 940 Penn Street, Reading, Pa. in 1887. The business continued operating into the 20th century., Title from item., Place of publication deduced from place of operation of advertised business., Publication information and date from copyright statement: Copyrighted 1887 by Chas. Brown., Series number on recto: C-762., Gift of David Doret.
- Date
- 1887
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Gately [P.2017.95.68]
- Title
- Merrick Thread Co. "If this was not Merrick's thread I'd get that coon."
- Description
- Racist trade card promoting Merrick thread and depicting a scene of a dog confronting an African American boy stealing a chicken. Shows the smiling African American boy kneeling on the ground and lifting a triangular-shaped wooden cage off a chicken as a large, grey pit-bull like dog lunges at him from the right. The boy is dressed in a blue and white plaid vest, a red shirt, blue pants rolled at the cuffs, and black shoes. The dog is tugged back by a white thread tied around its red collar and pulled from a large spool marked with the "Merrick Thread Co. Best Six Cord 8" logo. Behind the dog is a wooden dog house. Two African African boys watch from above and behind a fence with missing wooden panels. All figures are portrayed with exaggerated features. 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. John Wanamaker opened his dry goods store the Grand Depot in former Pennsylvania Railroad sheds in 1876., 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. Be Progressive. Try the ready-wound Bobbins and save both time and labor. Use them once and be convinced. Made for all Sewing-Machines. Same price as six cord., Distributor's imprint printed on verso: John Wanamaker, Thirteenth, Chestnut & Market Sts., Gift of David Doret.
- Date
- [ca. 1885]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Merrick [P.2017.95.121]
- Title
- It stands at the head. "Domestic" sewing machine
- Description
- Racist trade card promoting Domestic Sewing Machine Company and depicting a caricaturized genre scene of an African American family looking to their right at a billboard on the side of a building. The figures are portrayed with exaggerated feaures. Shows an older, squat man, a woman, and three children seated and standing in a horse-drawn cart halted on a dirt road. An older boy stands behind the cart. The man, attired in a top hat; a ragged jacket; a shirt with bowtie; and pants with patches on the knees and suspenders sits smiling and holding in his hands a stick and the reins of his horse that wears blinders. The woman, attired in spectacles; a straw hat with a decorative ribbon that is tied under her chin in a bow; a long-sleeved dress; and a shawl stands up inside the cart. She holds a baby in her left arm and points at the billboard with her right hand. A boy attired in a long shirt and pants sits beside the man in the front of the cart. Behind the man, a girl attired in a bonnet stands. The boy outside of the cart is barefooted and attired in a cap; a shirt; and ragged pants with a hole at the knee, and carries a basket. A dog, its tail between its legs, hunches underneath the cart. In the left, the billboard is illustrated with a sewing machine in the center of a star with the advertising text around it. Text reads: "It stands at the head : Copyrighted by the "Domestic" Sewing Machine Co. The star that leads them all. Unequalled for simplicity of construction ease of operation and durability. The light running "Domestic" sewing machine." In the distant right background a house is visible. 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., Title from item., Date deduced from history of the advertised business., Distributor's imprint printed on recto: E.R. Bumps, jeweller, Waldoboro, ME., Gift of David Doret.
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Domestic [P.2017.95.51]
- Title
- G.F.H. Guth, dealer in first class pianos, organs, sewing machines and musical merchandise
- Description
- Racist trade card promoting G.F.H. Guth's musical instruments retail store and depicting a caricature of an African American man on a farm with a horse-drawn plow driven and guided by dogs. Shows an African American man, attired in a hat, an orange plaid collared shirt, black pants, and black shoes, holding a whip and overseeing plowing on a farm. In the center is a team of two white horses pulling a plow. On top of the plow is a large, black dog wearing a collar and holding the reins to the horses in his mouth. Numerous lines of furrows can be seen in the ground. In front of the plow, a small, white dog wearing a collar guides the horses. Granville Francis Hiram Guth (1860-1939) owned a store in Allentown, Pa. selling pianos, organs, and musical instruments and also worked as a job printer. His store appears in the directories in the late 1880s to 1890s., Title from item., Place of publication inferred from place of operation of advertised business., Date deduced from history of the advertised business., Advertising text printed on verso: [Only] first-class makes on hand. No poor ones [in stock.] [Speci]alties. Behr Bros. Pianos. Farrand & Votey Organs. [Standard Rotary Shuttle Sewing Mach’s. 830] Ham[ilton St. All]entown [PA.], Text printed on the verso has been torn and damaged., Guth's imprint is stamped on recto: G.F.H. Guth, Music dealer, 830 Hamilton St., Allentown., Distributor’s imprint printed on verso: D.D. Halman, Salesman., Series number printed on the recto: 468., Gift of David Doret.
- Date
- [ca. 1890]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Guth [P.2017.95.76]
- Title
- [African American woman being courted by an African American man suitor as a dog bites his pants]
- Description
- Racist, trade card specimen depicting caricatures of an African American woman being courted by an African American man suitor as a dog bites his pants. In the left, the African American woman, attired in a straw hat decorated with a green ribbon and bow; gold hoop earrings; a ruffled, blue-checked dress with white sleeves and blue polka dots; and white shoes, stands with her back to the suitor. She carries a red book in her left hand and places her index finger on her right hand to her lips as she looks pensively down at the suitor. In the right, the barefooted, African American man, attired in a white top hat decorated with a black band, a white shirt with an oversized collar, a red bowtie, and yellow overalls with red stripes and suspenders, kneels as he looks up at the woman with his hands out. A small, white and brown dog with a brown collar bites and pulls at the seat of the man’s pants., Title devised by cataloger., Date deduced from the visual content., Gift of David Doret.
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Misc. 1 [P.2017.95.212]