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- Title
- [Morgan & Headly trade cards]
- Description
- Series of illustrated trade cards promoting jewelers Morgan & Headly in the Mutual Life Building at the northwest corner of Tenth and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia. Trade card depicts a large diamond jewel [1975.F.579]. Illustrated trade card depicts a caricaturized Japanese woman and boy playing a horn. The woman, wearing her hair tied up and decorated with kanzashi (decorative hair ornaments) and attired in a floral patterned kimono, stands before a Japanese-style building. She leans her left arm over a wall and looks down at a boy, wearing a shaved head with a small ponytail and attired in a tunic, a belt, pants, and cloth, slip-on shoes, playing a horn next to a bird with its beak open [1975.F.592]. Trade card depicting a Japanese-stylized scene of a crane bending over and cleaning its feathers with its beak. Also includes flowering tree branches [1975.F.593]., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content and history of the advertised business., One print [1975.F.579] contains vignette printed on verso depicting a hand-held fan superimposed onto a ribbon., RVCDC, Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Digitized.
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Morgan [1975.F.579; 1975.F.592 & 593]
- Title
- Nanki-Poo
- Description
- Racist trade card promoting thread manufacturer J. & P. Coats and depicting a character from The Mikado or, The town of Titipu, the opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Shows the white man actor in character as Nanki-Poo. He stands holding an open fan with his hands up. He wears a blue decoration in his hair and is attired in a blue-striped coat, red shirt, blue and white obi, red tunic, and sandals. A branch of pink flowers is overhead. An oversized spool of thread labeled, "J & P. Coats 200 yds 50 best six cord," is in the left. Brothers James Coats, Jr. (1803-1845) and Peter Coats (1808-1890) established the firm J.&P. Coats, a thread manufactory. Their brother Thomas Coats (1809-1883) joined the firm soon after. By 1840, three quarters of the British company’s business was with the United States. In 1896, the firm merged with thread manufacturer Clark & Co. and formed J. & P. Coats, Ltd. In 2015, the firm was renamed, “Coats Group.”, Title from item., Date deduced from the history of the advertised business., Text printed on recto: The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra la. breathe promise of merry sunshine, as we merrily dance and we sing, tra la, we welcome the hope that they bring, tra la, of a summer of roses and wine. And so, Coats' spool cotton is always a thing as welcome as flowers that bloom in the spring., Advertising text printed on verso: White, black and colors for hand and machine. J & P. Coats' Best Six Cord Thread.
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Trade Cards - J. & P. Coats [P.2024.38.2]
- Title
- Pooh-Bah
- Description
- Racist trade card promoting thread manufacturer J. & P. Coats and depicting a character from The Mikado or, The town of Titipu, the opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Shows the white man actor in character as Pooh-Bah. He stands holding a closed fan and frowns. He wears his hair in a chonmage hairstyle and is attired in a blue and white patterned kimono with birds with a red obi and has a sword at his waist. An oversized spool of thread labeled, "J & P. Coats 200 yds 50 best six cord," is in the right. Brothers James Coats, Jr. (1803-1845) and Peter Coats (1808-1890) established the firm J.&P. Coats, a thread manufactory. Their brother Thomas Coats (1809-1883) joined the firm soon after. By 1840, three quarters of the British company’s business was with the United States. In 1896, the firm merged with thread manufacturer Clark & Co. and formed J. & P. Coats, Ltd. In 2015, the firm was renamed, “Coats Group.”, Title from item., Date deduced from the history of the advertised business., Text printed on recto: I'am so proud, if I allowed, my family pride, to be my guide, you'd never hear, within your ear, Coats six cord thread, stand at the head, but family pride, must be denied, and set aside, and mortified, and so you hear, within your ear, Coats six cord thread, stands at the head., Advertising text printed on verso: White, black and colors for hand and machine. J & P. Coats' Best Six Cord Thread., Stamped on verso: W. Otis Hall, Retail Fancy Goods, Washington Street. Boston, Mass.
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Trade Cards - J. & P. Coats [P.2024.38.3]
- Title
- Yum-Yum
- Description
- Racist trade card promoting thread manufacturer J. & P. Coats and depicting a character from The Mikado or, The town of Titipu, the opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Shows the white woman actress in character as Yum-Yum. She sits on an oversized spool of thread labeled, "J & P. Coats 200 yds 50 best six cord," and holds a white spool of thread in her left hand. She wears her hair up and decorated with small red, blue, and yellow fans and is attired in a blue, yellow, and white patterned kimono. A building and some palm trees by the water are in the background. The moon reads, " J & P. Coats best six cord." Brothers James Coats, Jr. (1803-1845) and Peter Coats (1808-1890) established the firm J.&P. Coats, a thread manufactory. Their brother Thomas Coats (1809-1883) joined the firm soon after. By 1840, three quarters of the British company’s business was with the United States. In 1896, the firm merged with thread manufacturer Clark & Co. and formed J. & P. Coats, Ltd. In 2015, the firm was renamed, “Coats Group.”, Title from item., Date deduced from the history of the advertised business., Text printed on recto: "We've Coats' spool cotton, that's the reason why we're very wide awake, the moon and I.", Advertising text printed on verso: White, black and colors for hand and machine. J & P. Coats' Best Six Cord Thread.
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Trade Cards - J. & P. Coats [P.2024.38.4]
- Title
- F.P. Louderbough, graduate in pharmacy, cor. Tenth & Jefferson Sts. Philadelphia
- Description
- Trade card promoting pharmacist F.P. Louderbough and depicting racist caricatures of Japanese acrobats. Shows four barefooted, Japanese men, attired in red patterned kimonos, balancing, swinging, and flipping on two bamboo beams., Title from item., Dare inferred from content., Series no. on recto: 1700., Gift of William H. Helfand., RVCDC
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Helfand Patent Medicine Trade Card Collection - Pharmacists - Louderbough [P.9828.6374]
- Title
- Japon
- Description
- Trade card promoting druggist John H. Sheehan & Co. and depicting a scene of a Japanese woman and a samurai holding a flag. In the right, the Japanese woman, wearing her hair up with Kanzashi hair ornaments and attired in a multi-colored kimono and yellow shoes, stands and reaches her right hand out towards the man. In the left, the Japanese samurai, attired in a helmet and armor, stands and holds a Japanese flag on a flagpole. A cherry tree with pink flowers grows in the background. In the top left corner is a crest with a Japanese flag., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Text printed on verso: John H. Sheehan, Dealers in Drugs, Medicines, Pefumery and Toilett (sic) Articles, 167 Genesee Street, Utica, N.Y., Gift of William H. Helfand., RVCDC, See related: P.9828.6777.
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Helfand Patent Medicine Trade Card Collection - Pharmacists - Sheehan [P.9828.6766]
- Title
- Japan
- Description
- Trade card promoting coffee manufacturers Arbuckle Brothers and depicting Japanese men acrobats, jugglers, and dancers in a festival. In the left, shows a Japanese man acrobat wearing a chonmage hairstyle, a white headband, a pink kimono, and pink pants. He balances upside down on a flagpole with a pink banner and holds a fan in his right hand. In the right, a Japanese man, wearing a blue kimono, juggles a bottle and bowls. In the center is a fan with a vignette depicting three barefooted Japanese men, attired in black hats, yellow shirts, and blue pants, dancing holding branches. A Japanese man stands, attired in a black hat and green shirt, and holds a pink banner on a pole. Arbuckle's Coffee was founded by brothers John and Charles Arbuckle following the Civil War. The company was one of the first to sell roasted coffee and to place it in one pound packages. Arbuckle often included trade cards in the packages., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Copyright, 1893, by Arbuckle Bros. N.Y., Series no. on verso: No. 34., Advertising text on verso: Grind your coffee at home…. Japan. The Japanese have the most advance civilization of any nation on Asiatic soil. Indeed in some regards they are even more advanced than the proudest of western countries. But in many ways they are ludicrously far behind. They cling to ancient forms of government and the Mikado is an autocrat, absolute almost over the life and death of his subjects. A country which yields such power to the individual, can never hope to work out its highest possibilities. So even the sports and pastimes of such a nation can never be the spontaneous expression of the animal spirits of the young of that land. Juggling is a fine art in Japan. Beside the Japanese juggler, the man of legerdemain of other countries is a clumsy bungler. The feats performed by the former are beyond all comparison. To achieve such dexterity, it may well be presumed that the wizard has been taught from earliest childhood. In fact the jugglers are sometimes a caste, so that the child often starts with the hereditary traits of forefather in the same line, and of the added experience of these. Of the acrobats of Japan who are also super-eminent much the same can be said. One would scarcely believe that the human body could be so sinuous and might be so contorted at will. The Japanese Festivals or Feasts are frequent. The main celebrations are held after dark; then fireworks are displayed, and lanterns are hung. These latter transform the most commonplace scenes into fairyland. The dancing indulged in on these occasions in most picturesque. As the figures flit from light into dark and back again, they form scenes never to be forgotten. The Japanese wrestlers are world-famed, and their contests are most skillful. This is one of a series of Fifty (50) cards giving a pictorial History of Sports and Pastimes of all Nations., RVCDC
- Date
- 1893
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Arbuckle [P.2025.35.1]
- Title
- Centennial Exhibition Souvenir Fan
- Description
- Souvenir fan commemorating the Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876. Folding fan with thirty blades including guards. Shows the Main Building at Fairmount Park, designed by Henry Pettit and Joseph M. Wilson. Numerous men and women visitors walk the grounds in front of the building. A Japanese woman, wearing her hair up with Kanzashi hair decorations, and attired in a pink, blue, and red kimono, stands holding a fan. Red roses grow at her feet. In the right, a Japanese woman, wearing her hair up and attired in a blue, red, and pink kimono, holds a red fan in her left hand, and in her right hand she holds the hand of a young Japanese boy, attired in a yellow and red kimono. The verso depicts a bird perched on a branch with pink and red flowers, and the silhouette of two birds against a blue background. Text printed across the top lists the names and addresses of Philadelphia hotels: “Irving House. 817 Walnut St.; Guy’s. Cor. 7th St. and Chestnut; Colonnade. Cor. 15th St. and Chestnut; St. Cloud. 709 Arch St.; La Pierre. Broad St. Below Chestnut; Girard. Corner Ninth and Chestnut; Continental. Corner Ninth & Chestnut; Bingham. Corner 11th St. and Market St.; American. 517 Chestnut St.; Merchant’s. 42 North 4th St.; Washington. 711 Chestnut St.; Markoe. 919 Chestnut St.” Additional text includes, “Main Building, International Exhibition. Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. 1876. Length 1880 feet. Width 464.”, Gift of Linda Kimiko August, 2023.
- Date
- [ca. 1876]
- Location
- OBJ 924
- Title
- W.F. Potteiger, druggist, N.W. corner Fourth and Spruce Streets, Reading, PA
- Description
- Trade card promoting pharmacist William F. Potteiger and depicting a white woman attired in a kimono, probably an actress in character from the opera The Mikado or, The town of Titipu, by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Shows the woman wearing her hair up and decorated with fans and attired in a blue kimono with gold cranes, peach-colored obi, and purple skirt. She holds a peach-colored fan in her right hand and turns her head to the right with her left hand up. She stands on a fur rug., Title from item., Date inferred from active dates of the advertised business., Gift of William H. Helfand., RVCDC
- Date
- [ca. 1886]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Helfand Patent Medicine Trade Card Collection - Pharmacists - Potteiger [P.9828.6624]
- Title
- Compliments of R.B. Porter, druggist, St. Johnsville, N.Y
- Description
- Trade card promoting druggist Reuben B. Porter and depicting a white woman attired in a kimono dressed as a character from the opera The Mikado or, The town of Titipu, by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Shows the woman wearing her hair up and decorated with fans and attired in a red and gold kimono. She sits on the branch of a red flower and holds a blue fan in her left hand. A white butterfly flies in the left., Title from item., Date inferred from active dates of advertised business., Series no. on recto: 686., Manuscript written on verso: Nora Enlenmarks., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Gift of William H. Helfand., See related: P.9828.332; P.9828.1679; P.9828.4244; P.9828.5299; P.9828.5852-5854., RVCDC
- Date
- [ca. 1885]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Helfand Patent Medicine Trade Card Collection - Pharmacists - Porter [P.9828.6622]
- Title
- Compliments of John Wanamaker & Co. Clothiers, Chestnut below Ninth
- Description
- Trade card promoting dry goods merchant and clothier John Wanamaker & Co. and depicting a caricaturized Japanese boy playing a stringed instrument to a small dog. In the center, the boy, attired in a multi-colored, patterned kimono, geta shoes, and a straw conical hat, plays a stringed instument. In the left, a small black-and-white dog stands on his hind legs., Title from item., Date inferred from dates of operation of business advertised., Stamped on recto: Branch House, No. 10 Sixth Street, Pittsburgh., Purchased 2015., John Wanamaker and his brother-in-law Nathan Brown formed Wanamaker & Brown and opened the store Oak Hall at Sixth and Market Streets in 1861. Brown died in 1868. In 1869, the firm became John Wanamaker & Co., and he opened a store at Eighth and Chestnut Streets. John Wanamaker's Grand Depot at Thirteenth and Market Streets, opened in 1876 to cater to Centennial Exhibition crowds.
- Date
- [ca. 1870]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Berman Trade Card Collection - John Wanamaker & Co. [P.2015.56.463]
- Title
- McCless 1417 Chestnut St., (above Broad), fine arts! French plate mirrors
- Description
- Trade card promoting fine art dealer and mirror merchant J.E. McCless and depicting a caricaturized Japanese man pointing to a sign with the advertising text. In the center, the man, wearing a chonmage hairstyle and attired in a purple kimono with white and green trim, a black jacket with gold trim, and sandals stands and points to a wooden sign with advetising text., Title from item., Date inferred from dates of operation of business advertised., Purchased 2015.
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Berman Trade Card Collection - McCless [P.2015.56.576]
- Title
- The Mikado
- Description
- Racist trade card promoting thread manufacturer J. & P. Coats and depicting a character from The Mikado or, The town of Titipu, the opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Shows the white man actor in character as the Mikado, or Emperor. He stands holding a closed fan and smiles at the viewer attired in a headpiece, a blue kimono decorated with gold birds and flowers and red trim, with a sword at his waist. An oversized spool of thread labeled, "J & P. Coats 200 yds 50 best six cord," is in the right. Brothers James Coats, Jr. (1803-1845) and Peter Coats (1808-1890) established the firm J.&P. Coats, a thread manufactory. Their brother Thomas Coats (1809-1883) joined the firm soon after. By 1840, three quarters of the British company’s business was with the United States. In 1896, the firm merged with thread manufacturer Clark & Co. and formed J. & P. Coats, Ltd. In 2015, the firm was renamed, “Coats Group.”, Title from item., Date deduced from the history of the advertised business., Text printed on recto: My object all sublime! Shall attain in time. To let the punishment fit the crime, the punishment fit the crime. All people who have to do sewing and don't use Coats' six cord thread, will be punished with cotton that's snarly and rotten and kinks, till they wish they were dead., Advertising text printed on verso: White, black and colors for hand and machine. J & P. Coats' Best Six Cord Thread.
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Trade Cards - J. & P. Coats [P.2024.38.1]
- Title
- Lloyd O. Woodruff, druggist. Cor. Broadway & Point St., Cape Vincent, N.Y. Don’t read the other side
- Description
- Racist trade card promoting pharmacist Lloyd O. Woodruff and depicting actress Kate Forster dressed in character as Pitti-Sing from the opera, The Mikado or, The town of Titipu, by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Shows Forster wearing her hair up and attired in a blue kimono with gold decorations and a gold, flower-patterned obi. She holds a fan in both hands behind her head. Kate Forster, whose real name was Kate Jancowski, worked for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and performed as Pitti-Sing and Katisha in the Mikado in 1885-1886, 1889-1902. Lloyd O. Woodruff opened a drugstore in Cape Vincent, New York circa 1870., Title stamped on recto., Date deduced from dates of the performance., Text printed on verso: Lloyd O. Woodruff, druggist, keeps a full line of drugs, patent medicines, paints, oils, window glass, dry goods, boots, shoes and rubbers, fine stationery, school books, fancy groceries, watches, chains, plated ware, crockery, and will not be undersold, if you do not see what you want at his store, ask for it. Don’t forget the place, Cor. Broadway & Point St., Gift of William H. Helfand., RVCDC, See related: P.9828.2769-2771; P.9828.2823.
- Date
- [ca. 1886]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Helfand Patent Medicine Trade Card Collection - Pharmacists -Woodruff [P.9828.7139]
- Title
- W.T. Hanson & Co., prescription druggists, 195 State Street, Schenectady, N.Y
- Description
- Trade card promoting druggist W.T. Hanson & Co. and depicting a caricaturized Japanese boy playing with puppets. In the center, the boy, attired in a multi-colored, patterned kimono, geta shoes, and a cap with a red ribbon, holds a puppet in each hand. The puppet in the left is a Japanese woman, wearing her hair tied up and attired in a multi-colored, patterned kimono. The puppet in the right is a Japanese man attired in a conical hat and a multi-colored, patterned kimono. Willis Tracy Hanson, Sr. (1858-1933) founded W.T. Hanson & Co. in 1879., Title from item., Date inferred from active dates of the advertised business., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Gift of William Helfand., See related: Helfand Patent Medicine Trade Card Collection [P.9828.4586].
- Date
- [ca. 1880]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Helfand Patent Medicine Trade Card Collection - Pharmacists - H [P.9828.6079]
- Title
- C.C. Hughes, druggist & chemist, S.W. cor. 8th & Race Sts., Phila
- Description
- Trade card promoting druggist C.C. Hughes in the style of trompe l'oeil depicting a landscape with ships and a vignette portrait of a Japanese woman portrayed in caricature. Shows a landscape view with people standing on a path leading to a pagoda on a cliff. In the right, ships sail on the water. In the background are mountains. In the left, shows the Japanese woman wearing her hair up and decorated with Kanzashi hair ornaments and attired in gold hoop earrings; a yellow, patterned kimono with red trim; and a black obi. A green parrot sits on her left arm. Decorated border surrounds the scene., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Copyright 1881 by Geo. M. Hayes., Advertising text printed on verso: Alhambra hair restorer. Restores gray hair to its natural color with three or four application, making it soft and beautiful; removes dandruff and itching of the scalp; prevents premature baldness; stops hair from falling out; will not soil the finest linen: an excellent dressing, nicely perfumed. Price, 75 Cts., large bottle. Manufactured by C.C. Hughes, druggist & chemist, S.W. Cor. Eighth and Race Streets, Philadelphia. Hughes’ Corn & Bunion Plasters. Give instant relief and effect a cure. (They are not pads to relieve the pressure.) Each 25 cents per box; 12 corn or 6 bunion in each box. Sent by mail on receipt of price. C.C. Hughes, Druggist, Eighth and Race Streets, Philadelphia, Pa., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Gift of William Helfand., RVCDC
- Creator
- Rosenthal, Albert, 1863-1939
- Date
- 1881
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Helfand Patent Medicine Trade Card Collection - Pharmacists - Hughes [P.9828.6166]

