© Copyright 2025 - The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. TEL (215) 546-3181 FAX (215) 546-5167
For inquiries, please contact our IT Department
- Title
- Thomas Liggins, ornamental confectioner & fine cake baker, 1912 & 1914 Frankford Ave., and 448 Richmond Street, Philadelphia
- Description
- Series of illustrated trade cards and bookmarks depicting an owl, a rat, and a pelican with a fish in its beak., 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 - Liggins [P.9642.2 & 3]
- Title
- Smoke the "owl" cigar 5¢
- Description
- Illustrated trade card and ornament die cut and shaped into a birdcage containing an owl perched on a cigar labeled "owl". Duplicate image printed on verso. The cigar manufacturing concern Straiton & Storm, producer of the "Owl" cigars, was founded in New York City in 1863., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Gift of Helen Beitler., Digitized.
- Date
- [ca. 1885]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Owl [P.9983.3]
- Title
- Colburn's Phila. mustard
- Description
- Illustrated die cut trade cards shaped into a dog and an owl with the label "Colburn's Phila. mustard" printed on the animals' collars. Connecticut-native Arthur T. Colburn began his spice business ca. 1856 in Philadelphia., Advertising text printed on versos: Colburn's Philadelphia mustard, king of condiments. Always reliable for table & medicinal uses. Flavor, pungency, strength, combined in perfection. Better than imported and cheaper. Saving 14 cts. per 1 lb. in duty. For sale by grocers & druggists in 1/4, 1/2, & 1 lb. cans. Full weight., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., One print [P.2009.5] gift of David Rowland., Digitized.
- Date
- [ca. 1885]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Colburn's [1975.F.124; P.2009.5]
- Title
- [F.T. Howell & Co. trade cards]
- Description
- Series of illustrated trade cards for F.T. Howell & Co.'s paper hanging establishment at 1216 Chestnut Street and later Thirteenth and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia. Illustrations depict Asian symbols, including fans, a paddle fan, bamboo, pottery, and cranes (one with a frog caught in its beak) and a witch with a broom in front of a full moon, witches flying on brooms in the distant background, snakes, rodents, an owl, and a castle atop a steep cliff. Includes geometric borders., Title supplied by cataloger., Printers and engravers include Theo. Leonhardt & Son and Craig Finley & Co., One print [1975.F.406] contains advertising text printed on verso: Antique drawings for the interior decoration of walls., 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 - Howell [1975.F.406a; 1975.F.412a & 1975.F.442]
- Title
- [William Y. McAllister trade cards]
- Description
- Series of illustrated trade cards for optician William Y. McAllister's shop at 728 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. Illustrations depict idyllic landscape views of a forest, a stream, a cottage and ruins by a lake and anthropomorphic frogs, a stork, and an owl looking through telescopes and binoculars, reading and fishing., Title supplied by cataloger., Calendar for 1881 printed on verso of one print [1975.F.614]., 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 - McAllister [1975.F.610-614]
- Title
- [Samuel F. Simes trade cards]
- Description
- Series of illustrated trade cards entitled "Noon," "Morning," "Evening," and "Night" depicting a woman lounging on a hammock; a woman waking a child and pointing to the rising sun; a woman walking with a child asleep in her arms and an older child by her side; and a woman tucking in two children asleep in bed. These rectangular vignettes are surrounded by additional imagery, including plants, flowers, butterflies, birds and owls., Title supplied by cataloger., Advertising text printed on versos promotes Simes' apothecary at the northwest corner of Twentieth and Spruce Streets in Philadelphia and some of his products, including Cryoline (a silver polish), egg soda, and ginger ale., 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 - Simes [1975.F.835; 1975.F.842-844]
- Title
- [Simpson's millinery, laces and trimmings' store trade cards]
- Description
- Series of illustrated trade cards for J. & J. Simpson's millinery, laces and trimmings' store at 725 and 727 Sixth Avenue, near 42nd Street in New York. Illustrations depict flowers; owls perched on a branch of a flowering tree; a girl feeding birds under the supervision of a woman; a naked cherub figure riding on the back of a turtle; and a little girl picking flowers and collecting them in her toy wagon., Title supplied by cataloger., Four prints copyrighted 1880 by F. Todd and numbered 245., Printers and engravers include J.H. Bufford & Co., 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 - Simpson's [1975.F.753; 1975.F.797; 1975.F.804; 1975.F.854 & 855]
- Title
- R. & J. Beck, opticians, No. 1016 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia W.H. Walmsley, manager. Spectacles, eye glasses, opera glasses, microscopes, thermometers, telescopes
- Description
- Illustrated trade cards for R. & J. Beck opticians depicting children attired in long coats with an umbrella walking in the rain toward an anthropomorphic thermometer and children with binoculars and a telescope looking toward an anthropomorphic owl and moon. The owl gazes back through a telescope at the children and their dog. Founded in London in 1843, the company's name changed to R. & J. Beck in 1865., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Digitized.
- Date
- [ca. 1890]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Beck [1975.F.71-72]
- Title
- [Wm. F. Simes & Son trade cards]
- Description
- Series of illustrated trade cards for Wm. F. Simes & Son, proprietors of the "little gem corn & bunion remedy", at 1102 Market Street in Philadelphia. Illustrations depict a couple embracing and reeling in a large fish; a woman and three anthropomorphic owls reading and standing on a thin tree branch; a girl reeling in a fish twice the size of her own body; a man with a large, bulbous nose standing next to a stork on a beach, looking toward the ocean where a male fairy flies to retrieve a hat floating in the water; a Native American female cherub kneeling before a small Greek statuette; a male cherub playing a banjo and synchronizing the movements of a tiny ballerina doll to the music with a string attached his leg; a male cherub picking flowers and observing a dragonfly; and a male suitor standing next to the bench where his female companion is seated., Title supplied by cataloger., One print [1975.F.858] copyrighted 1882 by [illegible?], Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Digitized.
- Date
- [ca. 1882]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Simes [1975.F.755-759; 1975.F.789; 1975.F.815; 1975.F.858]
- Title
- [John Wanamaker & Co., 818, 820 & 822 Chestnut Street trade cards]
- Description
- Series of illustrated trade cards for John Wanamaker & Co.'s 818, 820 & 822 Chestnut Street store in Philadelphia. Illustrations depict the eastern and western hemispheres of the world; sheep standing in the snow; striped socks; butterflies; an anthropomorphic owl attired in a plaid coat and top hat standing in the curve of the moon observing the townscape below; a boy and a girl standing on a path below a tree in which a large birds sits; Philadelphia's City Hall; a boy riding on a sled through the snow pulled by two turkeys; a bird on a tree branch; a hearth with a kettle over a fire; rabbits and a grasshopper; an owl and birds; a well-dressed boy reading a sign on a stone all for boys' clothing at John Wanamaker & Co.'s store; putti seated in a bird's nest and playing with a Dutch clog in a pond; Japanese men assembling a paper lantern; an owl flying above two Japanese men huddled on the ground; cricket players; a large ship at sea framed by a large horseshoe; Japanese men running and falling from their sled in the snow; an angry merchant holding a $20.00 I.O.U. from a man attired in a new suit smoking a cigarette; men sitting on the field of a shooting range; and children playing with wood blocks and spelling "Wanamaker". Includes a metamorphic trade card, which when open shows an advertising board for John Wanamaker & Co. propped in a man's crooked teeth in his wide open mouth and when closed, shows the man with his eyes open and mouth closed. In 1869, Wanamaker established John Wanamaker & Co. on the 800 block of Chestnut Street., Title supplied by cataloger., Two prints [1975.F.940 & 1006] copyrighted 1881 by E.O. Goodman., Two prints [1975.F.963 & 966] copyrighted 1878 by L. Prang & Co., Boston., Two prints [1975.F.990, 991, 1000] copyrighted 1881 by O.J. Ramsdell., One print [1975.F.993] copyrighted 1879 by G.H. Kendall, engraver, 285 Broadway, New York., Printers and engravers include Hiram P. Arms, Jr. (Philadelphia), Rogers & Florance (Philadelphia), L. Prang & Co. (Boston), and G.H. Kendall (New York)., Four prints [1975.F.958, 979 & 980, 993] contain advertising text printed on versos promoting John Wanamaker & Co.'s quality clothing and low prices., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Digitized.
- Date
- [ca. 1878-ca. 1881]
- Location
- Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - John Wanamaker & Co. [1975.F.906; 1975.F.916 & 917; 1975.F.924; 1975.F.926; 1975.F.940 & 941; 1975.F.946; 1975.F.957 & 958; 1975.F.962 & 963; 1975.F.966; 1975.F.977; 1975.F.979 & 980; 1975.F.987 & 988; 1975.F.990 & 991; 1975.F.993; 1975.F.1000; 1975.F.1006; 1975.F.1009; P.9651.24; P.9728.16; P.9745]

