German Advertising Trade Cards collection

Scope and Contents

The German Advertising Trade Cards collection consists of 11 chromolithograph trading and advertising cards dating to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. These 11 cards were written in German, distributed by different manufacturers throughout Germany and Europe, and were used to advertise a number of products including pasta, meat extract, condensed milk, coffee, chocolate, cigarettes, and metal polish, among others. One of the better known companies included in this collection is the Liebig Company of Germany. In addition to advertising German manufactures, these cards feature romanticized images of Native Americans on the front of each card, and include sometimes fanciful or incorrect textual descriptions about Native life on the reverse. Images depict Native individuals and groups throughout North America, but tend to focus specifically on Northeast, Great Lakes, and Plains communities.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into folders.

Biographical / Historical

Trade cards such as the 11 included in this collection were widely popular forms of advertising in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Not confined to Germany, many companies throughout Europe and the Americas utilized these illustrated cards to increase awareness of their products to a mass-market public.