Coffee trade cards
Creation: circa 1880s-circa 1890sAbstract
Coffee production and consumption boomed in America during the nineteenth century. Coffee producers and distributers advertised their brands on trade cards, small advertising cards often produced via the color printing method chromolithography. This small collection consists of trade cards related to coffee, mostly localized to Ohio, including cards from twenty-two coffee companies.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1880s-circa 1890s
Creator
- Various. (Person)
Extent
65 item(s)
Physical Description
65 prints (trade and advertisting cards) : chromolithograph ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.
Historical note
Coffee was introduced to the Americas during the eighteenth century and became popular as a daily beverage following the Boston Tea Party of 1773 during the American Revolution, when tea was poured into Boston Harbor in protest of British taxation. Coffee production and consumption boomed during the nineteenth century. Advances in transportation and technology led to the widespread availability of coffee beans from around the world. With the invention of the coffee roaster and grinder, coffee became more accessible and affordable.
Coffee producers and distributers advertised their brands on trade cards, small advertising cards often produced via the color printing method chromolithography. Trade cards typically feature colorful, eye-catching images with advertising slogans on the front and often extensive advertising copy on the back. They were popular collectors' items. Almost every type of product or service imaginable was advertised in this way.
Scope and Contents
This small collection consists of trade cards related to coffee, mostly localized to Ohio. Twenty-two coffee companies are represented: Acme Coffee, Arbuckle Bros. (Ariosa Coffee), Bissman & Company, Cordoba Coffee, Dannemiller’s Cordova Coffee, Dilworth’s Coffee, Dayton Spice Mills Co., John H. Gause, Great American Tea Company, Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., Great Eastern Tea Co., Jenkins’ Coffee, Kirkpatrick’s Roast Coffees, McLaughlin’s Coffee, Sarica Coffee, Stinchcomb, Hendry & Co. (Victor Maria Coffee), H. K. & F. B. Thurber & Co., Toledo Spice Co., Union Pacific Tea Company, C. F. Ware Coffee Co., Wood’s Boston Coffees, and Woolson Spice Co. (Lion coffee).
The cards vary in size and depict a range of images: domestic scenes, coffee service and consumption, animals, babies and children, famous people, pastoral scenes, global locations, jokes, and flowers. The collection is arranged by size, then alphabetically.
Also present are two cards advertising restaurants: Model Coffee House, city not specified, and People’s Coffee Rooms, Boston, Massachusetts. There is also a single non-coffee-related card from the Singer Manufacturing Co. advertising Singer sewing machines.
Access Restrictions
No restrictions on access; this collection is open for research.
Language of Materials
English
Subjects
Finding Aid & Administrative Information
- Title:
- Coffee trade cards
- Author:
- Diane E. Bockrath
- Date:
- 2025
- Description rules:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description:
- English
- Script of description:
- Latin
Repository Details
Repository Details
Part of the Audiovisual Collections Repository
