Hot off the presses: Small Equals Keepsake box with image from a chromolithographed trade card from former Burlington manufacturer Wells, Richardson & Co. Here are children painting their eggs with Diamond Dyes.
Small Equals Keepsake Box, paint your eggs with Diamond Dyes
For a tiny eco footprint...and less money than it would cost to send a dozen roses, why not send a box filled with seedbombs? Invest in the future with one small gift.
Available at Small Equals Online Shop HERE
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This summer marks the 400th Anniversary of Samuel Champlain discovering invading the body of water known by the Abenaki as Biawbagok - the waters in between, and by the Iroquois as Caniadari Guarunti, the door to the country. The hoopla over the quadricentennial of Lake Champlain now begins.
Ephemera fans can rejoice not in Native American images but in a bounty of European-American images produced over the last hundred or so years. Here are but a few I've collected:
Postcard. Steamboat Vermont. copyright 1909. PSAW ephemera collections
Postcard back.
"This is a picture of the first Steamboat on Lake Champlain. (and the second in the World) It was built and launched at Burlington Vermont, in 1808, just 200 years after Champlain had entered its waters in a birch bark canoe.
The owners and builders were two brothers, John and James Winans; it was called the "Vermont;" and it was 120 feet long, 20 feet beam, 167 tons measurement; with an engine of 20 horse power, and commanded by Capt. John Winans"
Postcard. Steamer Ticonderoga. Ephemera Collections PSAW.
The Ticonderoga is now at the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne VT.
"Built in Shelburne in 1906, it operated as a day boat on Lake Champlain serving ports along the New York and Vermont shores until 1953. In 1955, the Ticonderoga was moved two miles overland from the lake to Shelburne Museum in a remarkable engineering effort that stands as one of the great feats of maritime preservation."
Rock Point, Lake Champlain. Postcard. PSAW ephemera collections
Lake Champlain from Red Rocks. Postcard PSAW ephemera collections.
Red Rocks is about a mile from Pine Street Art Works.
Wells, Richardson & Co, Diamond Dyes Trade card. PSAW ephemera collections
Wells, Richardson & Co was a huge business in Burlington during the late 1800's up to the 1930's. I've always imagined that this image takes place at Red Rocks. See the Lake in the background?
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The Wells Richardson Building on College Street is a Burlington, Vermont landmark. These days it houses Bennington Potters, but in it's heyday at the end of the 19th Century, Wells Richardson & Company patented, manufactured and distributed analyne dyes under the name of Diamond Dyes, as well as butter dye, baby food and proprietary medicines like Celery Compound.
Print Advertising was a part of their marketing strategy. Before the advent of color ads in newspapers and magazines manufacturers and distributors relied on trade cards and medical pamphlets -featuring their own cures - to sell their products. These they made by the gajillion, and distributed nationwide. They would be distributed for free in retail stores or any public venue where they might drum up business. Trade cards were hugely collectible, even in those days, and would often end up in scrapbooks, which were also the rage. The trade cards and pamphletss were printed by chromolithography, and retain their brilliant colors to this day.
Two links in the above text are from The Library Collection of Philadelphia, which has great collections. Check out their website.
Images below are from the Liza Cowan Ephemera Collections.
Diamond Dyes, Wells Richardson trade card. 1890's Vermont. Cowan ephemera collections.
Diamond Dyes Trade Card. Detail.
Diamond Dyes booklet. Cousin John's Extravagant Wife, A Story. 1890'st. Cowan ephemera collections.
Diamond Dyes booklet, detail.
Diamond Dyes. Unequaled for making Ink, or for coloring any articles any color. Cowan ephemera Collections.
Diamond Dyes, detail.
Diamond Dyes booklet, front and back covers. Cowan ephemera collections.
Diamond Dyes, back cover detail. Dying Easter eggs.
Diamond Dyes, back cover detail. Easter eggs.
Diamond Dyes booklet, front cover
Diamond Dyes, back cover detail. Color your childrens clothes with Diamond Dyes.
Diamond Dyes booklet, detail. She's sad because her clothes haven't been dyed with Diamond Dyes.
Wells, Richardson & Co. Lactated Food.
Wells Richardson & Co. Lactated Foods, What Are These Babies after. Die cut trade Card. Cowan ephemera collections.
Wells Richardson & Co. Lactated food. Die cut trade card. Cowan ephemera collections. The background here is blue because I scanned it on a piece of blue paper.
Wells Richardson & Co Lactated food trade card. Cowan ephemera collections.
Paynes Celery Compound probably contained opiates or other drugs, which were perfectly legal. Before the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, manufacturers didn't have to list ingredients or prove their effectiveness. This Wells Richardson & Company ad from the 1889 book from Burlington Business Association.
In this ad it is touted as a cure for Nervousness, one of the most "popular" diseases of the 19th Century middle class. Here is a link to a good post about 19th Century Nervousness from the blog (what is this).
I did my Master's Thesis in Anthropology on 19th Century American Uterine diseases, in which I write a lot about middle class women and nervousness or neuresthenia. Someday I'll write more here about it.
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Yesterday I posted a couple of details from Jello recipe books. I'm enamored of the way the details of the lithography breaks down into dot patterns. Here are some more.
Jello Booklet, detail.
You can see that someone wrote over the "W" with pencil. People leave mysterious traces of themselves.
Jello recipe booklet, detail
Jello Recipe booklet, detail
Jello Recipe Booklet, detail
Jello Recipe Booklet, detail
Jello Recipe Booklet, detail
Jello recipe booklet, detail
Jello Recipe Booklet, detail
Jello Recipe Booklet, detail
Jello Recipe booklet, detail
Needle pack, detail. made in Japan.
Needle pack, detail. made in Japan.
Needle Pack, detail. made in Japan
Needle Pack, detail
Needle Pack, detail. made in Japan.
Needle Pack, detail. made in japan
Needle Pack, detail, made in Japan
Needle pack, detail
Atlantic City Rolling Chair Postcard, detail
Atlantic City Rolling Chair Postcard, detail
Corset trade card, detail
Diamond Dyes Trade Card, detail
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