Tag Archives: trade literature

Happy Labor Day

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The Libraries has countless images in its Galaxy of Images website and online exhibitions and collections featuring people from all eras working hard to make a living.

Here are a few highlights:

William Gilbert, De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure; Physiologia Nova [On the magnet, magnetic bodies, and the great magnet of the Earth . . .], 1600, Man at work at a forge.

American Button-Hole, Overseaming, and Sewing Machine Company, [Flier featuring a picture
of a woman in formal dress sitting at a sewing machine], 1874, from Sewing Machines.

Portrait of Robert William Holley, biochemist, Scientific Identity: Portraits from the
Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, 2003, , from Scientific Identity.

Painted drawings by Rhodesian school children in the Smithsonian Institution [graphic]., 1961-1967, Women's work.

Lithographic printing shop of Wagner & McGuigan, Philadelphia: about 1850. Courtesy of the Harry T. Peters Collection, Division of Home and Community Life, National Museum of American History, from Picturing Words.

 

—Elizabeth Periale

Appreciate A Cow Today

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Some count it as the 15th, some as today, the 18th, but shouldn't every day be cow appreciation day?

This item from the Libraries' trade literature collection in the National Museum of American History Library seemed appropriate, no matter when you want to celebrate.

You can read a more detailed post on cream separators here.

De Laval Separator Co., De Laval Cream Separators, Farm and Dairy Sizes, 1913.

—Elizabeth Periale

Doesn’t This Feel Like Fall?

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Dennison Manufacturing Co., Framingham, MA.  Dealers Catalogue of Tags and Specialties, 1913-1914, 1913, page 133, Crepe Paper (Fall leaves, pumpkins, corn, apples).

It's Thanksgiving week and we are well into the season of Fall, so we decided to feature some trade literature with a Fall theme.

These crepe paper designs can be found in a Dennison Manufacturing Co. catalog entitled Dealers Catalogue of Tags and Specialties, 1913-1914.  Dennison's Decorated Crepe Paper designs came in a variety of seasonal and holiday designs—floral patterns for springtime, patriotic designs for the 4th of July, pumpkins for Halloween, leaves for Fall, and much more.  The designs used as little as two colors or as many as eleven colors and were advertised as using "rich lasting colors that are bright but not vivid, strong though not heavy, varied but still true to art."

This catalog and others by Dennison Manufacturing Co. are located in the Trade Literature Collection at the National Museum of American History Library. 

More images from this catalog can be found on the Galaxy of Images.

—Alexia MacClain

Do Love Apples Count, Too?

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Iowa Seed Co., 36th Annual Catalogue, 1906. Back Cover.

October is National Apple Month. The Libraries has an abundance of beautiful images of fruits and the like in its seed catalog collection, which is part of the trade literature collection in the National Museum of American History Library.

I have to admit that as delicious as the depicted Wealthy Apple looks, and as intrigued as I might be about the Transparent Apple, what really strikes my fancy is that Majestic Tomato, front and center, for fifteen cents. Yum.

—Elizabeth Periale

Those Exhilarating Roller Skates

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Plimpton's Patent Roller Skates

Joseph W. Wayne, Cincinnati, OH.  Plimpton's Patent Roller Skates, circa 1879, Plimpton's Patent Roller Skates.

To celebrate National Roller Skating Week, we are featuring trade literature advertising Plimpton's Patent Roller Skates.

Patented on January 6, 1863 and June 26, 1866, Plimpton's Patent Roller Skates were advertised as "the only one upon which all the graceful movements and evolutions of Ice Skating can be executed with ease and precision on a Smooth Floor."

Because Plimpton's Patent Roller Skates provided the rink customer with exercise that was "so exhilarating … amusement so fascinating … " rink owners could also be pleased with their investment in the skates.  Plimpton's Patent Roller Skates were priced at $4 per pair when bought in groups of 25 pairs or more, and according to this trade literature, by charging a price for the rental of the skates at the rink, the cost of buying the skates "will generally be returned within the first month."

Rink owners were more than satisfied with the use of Plimpton's Patent Roller Skates. A letter dated November 6, 1870 written by J. S. Elliot & Co. in Hopkinsville, Kentucky reads, "Our Rink is a complete success.  Has succeeded beyond our expectations."  On January 23, 1869, the Indianapolis Rink Association President, E. S. Alvord, writes, "We will state that at this place it has proved a success and a good pecuniary investment." He goes on to say, "The patrons of the Rink very generally prefer the Rollers to Ice Skating, and we have no doubt it will pay the stockholders a larger dividend, and give greater satisfaction to its patrons."

Plimpton's Patent Roller Skates, trade literature by Joseph W. Wayne of Cincinnati, Ohio, is located in the Trade Literature Collection at the National Museum of American History Library.  For more images of trade literature in the Libraries' collection, check out the Galaxy of Images. —Alexia MacClain