Helen Baker Cushman (1922-) was the founder and manager of H.M. Baker Associates, consultants in business archives and records from 1958 to 1993, headquartered in Westfield, New Jersey. In the course of conducting her business, Cushman collected a wide variety of business publications, trade cards, ephemera, and other memorabilia with special emphasis on world expositions. She also assembled her own general picture archive for use in her business.

Patent medicines, also known as proprietary medicines, are non-prescription medicinal remedies that are trademarked and whose ingredients have been granted protection for exclusivity. The term "patent medicine" has become particularly associated with drug compounds manufactured during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In actuality, the patent medicine recipes were not officially patented. Patent medicine promoters pioneered many advertising and sales techniques; this small collection primarily features trade cards and almanacs.

Ice and coal companies delivered ice in summer and coal in winter to meet the growing demands of consumers and businesses for refrigeration and heat. The collection consists of trade cards from seventy-one companies that were used as advertisements and as order tickets for ice and coal.

The Singer Company was once the world's leading producer of sewing machines that achieved peak domestic and foreign influence by the late nineteenth century. The collection consists of photographs, trade cards and other ephemera related to the Singer Company. Most of the photographs feature Singer sewing machines and many of these are identified by date and model number.

The Swords Bros was a photography studio, gallery and frame makers in York, Pennsylvania in the late-nineteenth century. This item is an advertising card for Sword Bros Photographers on 25 West Market Street for their frame department.

The Underwood Typewriter Company was founded in 1895 by John T. Underwood (1857-1937). The "No. 5" model was so successful it outsold all of its competitors combined for the first two decades of the twentieth century. The Royal Typewriter Company was founded in 1904 and began operating in 1906 in Brooklyn. By 1908 it had transferred to Hartford, Connecticut. One card features a photograph of a small image of an Underwood "No. 5" typewriter. The second one features a man posing with a Royal typewriter.