Small, colorful advertisements became popular collectibles
By Terri Jo Ryan Tribune-Herald staff writer
For the last third of the 19th century, a popular pastime was collecting tradecards — small, colorful advertisements for goods and services that often ended up pasted into scrapbooks.
A tradecard typically measured about 3 inches by 5 inches, but some were as large as 8 inches by 10 inches. They typically had a pleasant picture with an advertising slogan on the front and ad text or testimonials on the reverse.
Local merchants and traveling vendors would hand them out as a cheap and effective way to promote products and services. These chromo-lithographic paper tokens became highly desirable because of their decorations, and many ladies started to collect them.
Favorite themes were pretty girls, mischievous boys, anthropomorphic cats and dogs, puzzles and jokes, flowers, historical characters, patriotic tableaus, ethnic humor and even slightly risque material.
Tradecards reached the height of their popularity during the 1880s and 1890s. By the early 20th century, though, reduced postal rates and the rise of magazine publishing had led to the decline of this form of commercial promotion.
The Texas Collection at Baylor University has a large collection of Victorian tradecards. Several dozen were on display in early March for the opening of the “Dash of Recipes, Pinch of History” show at the Carroll Library, which will wrap up at the end of this month.
Sources: The Texas Collection at Baylor University, AntiqueBottles.com, TradeCards.com, Ancestorville.com, Miami (Ohio) University Libraries and the University of Iowa Digital Library.
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