Trade Cards, Matchbooks, and Advertisements Collection

The development of mass color printing techniques in the late nineteenth century resulted in a flood of attractive, inexpensive printed ephemera – from postcards and greeting cards to souvenir programs, calling cards and invitations, menus, and advertising items of all kinds. Colorful and attractive, these soon became popular collectibles and were sought-after for scrapbooks. “Trade cards” has become something of a catch-all term covering many kinds of advertising items, from tiny cards to elaborate fold-out pieces. At first, decorative motifs were usually romantic and sentimental, containing flowers, children, animals and often having little to do with the business being advertised. Over time, landscapes, political and military scenes, portraits, and cartoons, often racist, were added, and cards were sometime issued in series. Newark, as a booming industrial and commercial center in the decades after the Civil War, was a major producer and consumer of all kinds of advertising material.

Souvenir matchbooks, issued by hotels, restaurants, bars, and nightclubs, as well as banks and other businesses, were also produced in great numbers. The examples in this collection date mostly from the 1940's to the 1970's. In addition to several thousand trade cards and matchbooks, the collection also includes a small number of miscellaneous advertising items such as calendars, recipe booklets, souvenir blotters, and gummed stamps.