Racist trade card promoting Willard & Lane’s Eagle Stove Polish and depicting caricatures of an African American woman and two African American boys using stove polish. Shows the African American woman, portrayed with exaggerated features and attired in a hat decorated with a ribbon, a white, short-sleeved dress, and slippers, standing and carrying a brush in her left hand. She looks with concern to the left at the two boys sitting on the floor. In the left, the barefooted boy, attired in a short-sleeved white shirt and shorts, sits on the floor with his legs stretched out. The barefooted boy in the right, attired in a white, long-sleeved shirt and white pants with a patch, applies stove polish with a brush on him. In the foreground is a box labeled, “Willard & Lane’s Improved Eagle Stove Polish.” A stove is in the center of the room. Abel Lyman Willard (1829-1892) opened an apothecary and drug store in 1855 in Taunton, Mass. In circa 1874, he founded the firm Willard & Lane with A.F. Lane, manufacturing Eagle Stove Polish., Title from item., Date deduced from the history of the advertised business., Gift of David Doret.
Date
[ca. 1875]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Willard [P.2017.95.190]
