Advertising Trade Cards

Advertising trade cards were an early form of mass advertising of products. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, many products were invented or improved. Many products that were sold without any particular name now had brand names that needed to be advertised. These are some attractive examples.

CUNARD TRAVEL POSTERS

Cunard is a luxury liner company that is still in existence. They are most noted for the transatlantic route between New York and Southampton. These are some of the early travel advertisements.

some circus posters

In the 19th century traveling circuses were very popular in the United States. To advertise the shows , advance men would travel ahead of the circus and blanket towns with circus posters advertising the coming circuses. These posters had to be large and colorful to catch potential customer's attention. The advertisements were not meant to be permanent, so the actual posters are fairly rare, but reproductions were widely available.

combination sewing machine and player piano

This is quite odd. I can't imagine how a sewing machine company decided this was a great idea. I guess they saw the sewing machine had a pedal at the bottom to power it and decided they should invent something else that could use that pedal. I don't think many homes had player pianos, weren't they in saloons or something? Anyway, I don't think this invention was a success, but it is an interesting idea.