Dixon's carburet of iron stove polish.
Title
Dixon's carburet of iron stove polish
Description
Series of trade cards promoting Joseph Dixon Crucible Company's stove polish and depicting a racist caricature of an African American woman nanny at work. Shows the nanny smiling, holding, and scrubbing an unclothed white girl, who is coated in black stove polish along her right side. The long, brown haired girl wears a red headband and is partially covered by a white cloth draped around by the nanny. The nanny uses a scrub brush under the right arm of the girl. The girl stands, her right leg raised, upon a table covered with a yellow tablecloth and stained by the polish. She looks down and touches the nanny's face with her right hand. She places her left hand over the woman's hand on her left side. The nanny is attired in a white head kerchief with red polka dots; a yellow short-sleeved shirt with red stripes; and a blue skirt. On the table is a plate; a brush; and boxes labeled Dixon's Stove Polish. Image also includes, in the left background, a stove with a steaming copper kettle and a partial view of a stove pipe and checkered flooring. The Joseph Dixon Crucible Company, established by Joseph Dixon in Salem, Mass. in 1827, produced graphite pencils, crucibles and stove polish, and relocated to Jersey City, N.J. in 1847. In 1868, the firm name changed from Joseph Dixon & Co. to the Jos. Dixon Crucible Co. In 1870 the firm won a trademark case against a Philadelphia competitor selling J.C. Dixon Stove Polish., Title from item, Printers and engravers include Major & Knapp Engraving, Manufacturing & Lithographic Co. (New York) and A. Gast & Co. (New York and St. Louis)., Advertising text printed on verso: Advertising text printed on verso: Established 1827. Dixon's stove polish; over fifty years in the market. Neat; quick; brilliant, and lasting. No dust. No odor. Nothing will make a stove so bright and cheerful for so long a time as the Dixon stove polish. It is by far the cheapest in use, in the long run. Buy it. Try it. Take no other. Pressed into a neat quarter-pound packet, absolutely free of adulteration. Six millions sold in 1880. Jos. Dixon Crucible Co., Jersey City, N.J., Gift of Emily Phillips, 1883. Purchase 1998., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Digitized.
Date
[ca. 1885]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Dixon [1975.F.235; P.9577.14; P.9599]
[J. & P. Coat's thread trade cards]
Title
[J. & P. Coat's thread trade cards]
Description
Series of trade cards promoting J.&. P. Coats thread and depicting men, women and children performing a variety of activities with the thread, including a white girl swinging on a tree swing; a white man fishing in a stream while a white woman watches; and several white children pretending to be a horse team. Includes a large frog on a riverbank. "So do my sisters and my cousins and my aunts!" depicts an older white woman carrying packages. "Gulliver and the Lilliputians" based on Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" shows an oversized Gulliver being tied down with thread by the Lilliputians. "That's the kind! Bring me some more" depicts an older white woman inspecting different colored spools of thread in a box held up by a white boy. "Ef dis don't fetch you nothing will" depicts an African American man and woman, portrayed in racist caricature, trying to tame a donkey. In the left, the woman, attired in a white bonnet with a red ribbon, a red shirt, a blue scarf, a yellow shirt, a white apron, and gray shoes, uses thread from an enormous J. & P. Coats spool to pull on the bridle on the donkey, who pulls back with its mouth open. Behind the donkey, the man stands, attired in a brown, brimmed hat, a red shirt, blue plaid pants, and blue shoes, who holds a rope in his left hand and scratches his head with his left hand. "We never fade!" depicts an African American boy, portrayed in racist caricature, sitting on an oversized spool of thread in a field. Shows the boy seated and with his legs straddling a giant spool of black thread. He says “we never fade!!” and points his finger at the sun, which has a face and a concerned expression with a downward turned mouth. The boy is barefoot and attired in a white collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows; a multi-colored tie and belt; and red pants rolled up to the knees. In the foreground, two black crows look at the thread. A house is visible in the right background., 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 supplied by cataloger., Five prints printed by E. Ketterlinus & Co., Ten prints contain advertising text printed on versos, including promotions for J. & P. Coat's best six cord, soft finish spool cotton; a table of needle and thread numbers; a calendar for 1880; and a description of "Gulliver and the Lilliputians" illustration (on recto of print 1975.F.220)., Gift of Emily Phillips, 1883. Purchase 1999. Purchase 2001., RVCDC, Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Digitized.
Date
[ca. 1885]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Coats [1975.F.123; 1975.F.126; 1975.F.133; 1975.F.150; 1975.F.157; 1975.F.193; 1975.F.195; 1975.F.220; 69211.D; P.9743; P.9984.4]
[Academy of Music trade cards]
Title
[Academy of Music trade cards]
Description
Series of illustrated trade cards promoting performances and events at the Academy of Music. Illustrations depict men and women dressed in costumes and dancing and celebrating Carnival, including a joker disembarking from a gondola; a little girl sitting in a lily pad; fairies; angels; jokers; butterflies; flowers; bust portraits of unknown actors in the Humpty-Dumpty show surrounding a vignette of a horse-drawn cart carrying "humpty-dumpty"; portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Jay Rial flanked by dogs; and L.H. Stockwell as lawyer Marks and his trained donkey Jerry. The Academy of Music was designed by architects Napoleon LeBrun and Gustav Runge. Building constructed 1855-1857 at the southwest corner of Broad and Locust Streets. Served as home of Philadelphia Orchestra from 1900-2000., Title supplied by cataloger., Printers and engravers include Bailey, Banks & Biddle, The Courier Lith. Co., Reen Lith. Co., H.A. Thomas, and Maerz Lith. Co., One of prints [1975.F.1] die cut in shape of keystone., Several of the prints contain promotional text printed on the recto and/or verso. Performances and events promoted include the Reception of the Bi-Centennial Mystic Tableau Association; Grand Cannstatter Carneval; Cannstatter Bal Masque; Maennerchor Carneval Mardi Gras; the Fairy Juvenile Troupe's Little Red Riding Hood; German Comic Opera starring Mme. Marie Geistinger.; Humpty-Dumpty (performance); and The Jay Rial Uncle Tom's Cabin Co., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., One print [P.2011.45.24] gift of David Doret., Digitized.
Date
1879-1882
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Academy of Music [1975.F.1; 1975.F.5; 1975.F.7; 1975.F.11; 1975.F.17; 1975.F.20; 1975.F.23-24; 1975.F.26; 1975.F.738; P.2011.45.24]

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