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Title: The light-running New Home sewing machine, D.S. Ewing, general agent, 1127 Chestnut St. Phila, PA
Description: Racist trade card illustration depicting an African American family riding a donkey and leaving their small cabin, which is likely located on or near a plantation. The family consists of a father, son, mother, and baby. Surrounding the family are two small dogs, two children waving goodbye on a wooden fence, a child who tugs the donkey's tail, a woman bidding the group farewell with her arms outstrethced, and a man who sits on the steps of the cabin in the background. A second cabin is visible in the background of the image behind the wooden fence. The father is attired in a yellow coat, a white and black top hat, and shoes. The son is attired in a white dotted shirt, a hat, plaid yellow pants, and shoes. The mother is attired in a yellow shirt, a white bonnet, a blue dotted shirt and shoes. She holds the baby in a wrapped blanket and gestures toward the onlookers behind her. A sign shaped like an arm with a hand pointing its index finger is situated beside the wood fence and reads "New home." In the upper right corner is a circular image of a New Home sewing machine. Daniel S. Ewing was a Philadelphia merchant who sold sewing machines at his eponymous store. The store was located in Philadelphia on Chestnut Street., Title from item., Text on recto: We's gwine to get a new home we is!, Gift of David Doret.
Date: [ca. 1885]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - New Home [P.2017.95.140]

Title: Warner's Safe Yeast. Up with the sun
Description: Racist trade card promoting Warner’s Safe Yeast and depicting a white mother with a sick infant and an African American woman nanny who suggests using Warner’s yeast. Shows the mother with her brown hair tied up in a bun and attired in a long-sleeved, striped pink dress with yellow pleats at the bottom and white lace at the collar and cuffs of the sleeves. She cradles in her arms an infant wrapped in a white blanket with two yellow stripes. She looks down at her son standing in the right. He is attired in an orange, long-sleeved shirt with a white collar, a yellow skirt and leggings, and black shoes. He asks, “Mamma, what’s the matter with baby?” She replies that, “Baby’s very sick.” The boy holds up a cannister labeled “Safe Yeast” and states, “Dinah says Warner’s Safe Yeast is the best thing she knows of, to raise him.” In the right, Dinah stands looking on, attired in a yellow bonnet, red earrings, a yellow, short-sleeved dress with a white collar and red tie, and a white apron. In the bottom right is a large cannister of Warner’s Safe Yeast. Image also includes a blue and green rug, fireplace andirons, and in the background a windowpane with a blue vase with yellow flowers. Outside the window the sun comes up and reads, “up with the sun.” Hulbert Harrington Warner (1842-1923) founded a patent medicine business in Rochester, N.Y. in 1878. He created Warner’s Safe Yeast in 1885. In the Panic of 1893, he was unable to cover the company's debts, and the business failed., Title from item., Date deduced from the history of the advertised business., Text printed on recto: Precocious Youngster: Mamma, what’s the matter with the baby? Mamma: Ah, Darling, Baby’s very sick, I’m afraid we won’t be able to raise him. Precocious Youngster: Try this Mamma, Dinah says Warner’s Safe Yeast is the best thing she knows of, to raise him., Gift of David Doret.
Date: [ca. 1885]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Warner [P.2017.95.187]

Title: Saturday. Whoa! Dar Sambo! What do yer mean, what makes yer jump and shout? I will wash yer clean with Higgins' soap, and then yer may jump out
Description: Racist trade card promoting Higgins' soap and depicting a caricature of an African American woman bathing her child in a wash tub. Shows the African American woman portrayed with exaggerated features with her hair in pigtail braids tied at the ends in white bows, attired in an orange and yellow striped head kerchief; a red and white shawl; and a blue, short-sleeved dress. The mother kneels on the floor as she bathes her young son in a washtub. She smiles, rubbing a wash cloth on the boy with her right hand. The naked boy stands in the tub with his left leg raised. She says in the vernacular, “Whoa! Dar Sambo! What do yer mean, what makes yer jump and shout? I will wash yer clean with Higgins' soap, and then yer may jump out.” Behind the tub, in the left, a girl, attired in a black-striped, red nightgown, and a boy, attired in an orange nightgown, watch the scene. In the right, another boy in an orange nightgown looks on. A white towel with two red stripes and decorative fringe is draped over the side of the wash tub. In the right background, a white sheet hangs on a clothesline. Charles S. Higgins Company, established by Higgins’s father W. B. Higgins in Brooklyn in 1846, manufactured "German Laundry soap" beginning around 1860, when Charles assumed the business. The laundry soap was packaged in a wrapper illustrated with an African American woman washing in a tub. By the early 1890s, Charles S. Higgins left the firm still operated under his name and formed Higgins Soap Company. Court proceedings over trademarks and tradenames ensued and Higgins Soap Company became insolvent by the mid 1890s., Title from item., Date deduced from history of the advertised business., Gift of David Doret.
Date: [ca. 1880]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Higgins' [P.2017.95.85]

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