Originally published in the Cecil Whig
What’s a Trading Card? No, it’s not a piece of cardboard with the picture of a baseball or football player emblazoned across the front. It’s a form of late 19th and early 20th century advertising. And the Historical Society of Cecil County has a collection of nearly 200 of these gems from stores in both Cecil County and regional big cities.
The collection was given to the society by Mary Schmidt in 1994. Since then it has been sitting in a binder in a box on the society’s second floor… until now. This past spring Della Keyser of Buck’s County, Pennsylvania and a student at the University of Delaware, opened the box and began reviewing and documenting all the cards. She found some surprises.
“They were mainly collected by children, especially girls. They were usually glued into scrap books. Many of the cards,” Della explains, “still have the name of the child written in pencil on the card. Ricketts Nelson (of Elkton) is one of the names that appears a lot. He would have been around 11 or 12 years old in the early 1880s.”
So why make business cards available to kids? “They appear to be a part of a marketing strategy where the cards were kept in stacks on counters and kids would go up and take them. The idea,” Della says, “was that the kids would bring them home and maybe somehow the parents would get to know about the business.”
According to Della, most of the cards are not from local businesses. “A little over a third of the cards are from businesses in Cecil County (Elkton, North East, and Rising Sun) and the rest are from businesses in Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore. Mitchell’s Drug Store is one of the local businesses represented in the collection. There are about 30 from Mrs. Nelson’s Millinery in Elkton. That’s probably because her sons,” Della reports, “Mitchell and Robin Nelson, collected the cards. There are also cards from H.H. Biddle who owned a bakery on Main Street. Wanamakers of Philadelphia is the only other big names recognizable today. So,” Della adds, “it shows you that at this time people were able to get on trains and travel to cities and shop there, not just locally.”
The Mary Schmidt collection also includes calling cards which are completely different from trading cards. ““There are 4 personal calling cards. One of them is probably an Elkton resident, but I could not confirm that. They look like business cards, but, Della says, “they were used for social occasions. They might hand them out at parties or if you visited someone at their house and they were not there, you’d leave a calling card.”
Della, enrolled in the Master’s history program at the University of Delaware, is concentrating on business and consumer history. She says her work with trading cards fits in well with her major. “In this collection there are quite a lot of cards from department stores which were just starting nationwide. The cards show the popularity of so called ‘ready made’ clothes and mass transportation. They were the topic of discussion in some of my other business history related classes. I also learned a lot about Cecil County and about some of these famous names (in local business).
All this trading card information will be posted to the Society’s web site. “ I Created an online finding aid as well as an online exhibit also for posting on the HSCC web site. It’s called ‘Thank you for your patronage: 19th Century business cards from Cecil County.’” According to Della, it “features a dozen of these cards, notes what trade cards are, what made them popular, and who collected them. It also describes how business is being drawn away from Main Street to places like Philadelphia. Finally, I profiled some of the stores in Cecil County including Mithcell’s Drug Store and Mrs. Nelson’s Millinery.”
Thanks to Della for her work on bringing to light this little piece of local history in the form of little cardboard cards.
Come to the HSCC because the Museum Studies programs sees it as “a great place for hands on experience.” With an emphasis on archives and paper collections.
“Mary Schmidt trade card and advertising collection” 185 items in the collection. 174 of them are trade cards. “The Schmidt Collection was gifted to HSCC by Mary Schmidt, a local resident, in 1994.”
What is a trade card? “Prior to magazine advertising around the turn of the (19th to 20th) century, businesses that wanted to advertise their goods and services had trade cards printed and distributed to their customers. They were mostly the size of today’s business cards, but sometimes larger. They contained information around the name of the business and its location. They also included an attractive image along with maybe a funny saying.” “Several cards in the collection are in fact dated, with dates ranging from 1881 to 1884.”
“Those images included ones of children, pretty girls in dresses, children at play. They were mainly collected by children, especially girls. They were usually glued into scrap books. Many of the cards were part of childrens’ collections and they still have the name of the child written in pencil on the card. Ricketts Nelson is one of the names that appears a lot. He would have been around 11 or 12 years old in the early 1880s. There are also a number of trade cards for drug stores in Elkton. They promote medications available at the drug stores including drugs with morphine in them and things that shouldn’t be in there!” It was all legal then.
“They appear to be a part of a marketing strategy where the cards were kept in stacks on counters and kids would go up and take them. The idea was that the kids would bring them home and maybe somehow the parents would get to know about the business.”
“They start appearing around the centennial celebration in Philadelphia (1876), but they saw their peak between 1880 and 1900 and their decline after magazines become in fashion.”
“A little over a third of the cards are from businesses in Cecil County and the rest are from businesses in Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore. Mitchell’s Drug Store is one of the local businesses represented in the collection. Wanamakers of Philadelphia is the only other big names recognizable today.
“There are about 30 cards from Mrs. Nelson’s Miliner in Elkton. That’s probably because her sons, Mitchell and Robin Nelson collected the cards.” “H.H. Biddle who owned a bakery on Main Street.
There are three towns represented in Cecil County: Elkton, North East, and Rising Sun. The people collecting them were from Cecil County, so it shows you that at this time people were able to get on trains and travel to cities and shop there, not just locally.”
“There are 4 personal calling cards. One of them is probably an Elkton resident, but I could not confirm that. They look like business cards, but they were used for social occasions. They might hand them out at parties or if you visited someone at their house and they were not there, you’d leave a calling card.”
“Children had these printed cards, took them to school, and handed them out to their classmates. It was like a social ranking thing: how many cards could you give out, who could you get cards from, etc. The child’s name was on the cards. Status symbol.”
“Calling cards are just names so there’s no address, no occupation or anything like that.”
“This project overlaps with my Master’s interest really well. In this collection there are quite a lot of cards from department stores which were just starting. They were the topic of discussion in some of my other business history related classes.”
Created an online finding aid as well as an online exhibit also for posting on the HSCC web site. “Thank you for your patronage: 19th Century business cards from Cecil County.” Features a dozen of these cards. Notes what trade cards are, what made them popular, who collected them. It also describes how business is being drawn away from Main Street to places like Philadelphia. Finally, I profiled some of the stores in Cecil County including Mithcell’s Drug Store and Mrs. Nelson’s Millinery.”
The cards in good condition. “They have a glue residue on the back but that’s it. There is maybe one card that was ripped in half that could use some attention, but overall they are in good condition.”
“The cards are already in plastic seeds in an archival binder so I will take them out of the binder and lie them down in a box where they can be horizontal which is ideal for this type of thing. They are also in alphabetical order.
Learnings: I learned a lot about Cecil County, about some of these famous names, and I also learned about the rise of department stores a nationwide trend developing in Elkton Ready made clothing. Mass transportation.
Will graduate next spring, 2015. This summer I’m working at the Chemical Heritage Foundation and interning at the National Museum of American and Jewish History in Philadelphia.