Cats are great at stealing people’s hearts. Who doesn’t fall in love with the image of a cute little kitten or a cat doing something funny? That is one of the reasons that companies have been using them in their advertisements for more than a century. All of the cat commercials and advertisements on the internet began with cats on trade cards during the Victorian Era.
Title Photo Credit: Boston Public Library via Flickr
Trade Cards As Advertisements
It was cost prohibitive for many businesses to run an ad in a newspaper or a magazine, so businesses improvised and began to use trade cards. In the early 1800’s they were simply a card that might have a black and white image on one side and always had information about a business or product on the other side. However, in 1870, it became affordable to use color lithography and almost all cards began to use a color image. There were 2 types of trade card, stock, and custom. Stock trade cards had a generic, but interesting, image on one side and the other side was left blank for the advertiser to place their information on. Custom trade cards were made for a specific company. Trade cards with color images became very popular with the people of the Victorian age. Collecting them in scrapbooks was a common hobby.
Trade cards were used in a similar fashion to how business cards are used today. Businesses would hand them out to customers to remind them about the business they had visited or the product they had purchased. They might be given to customers with a purchase or simply placed on racks at the store for customers to choose for themselves. Expositions, like the World’s Fair, were popular places for businesses to hand out their cards as well. The most common categories of goods seen on trade cards were tobacco, clothing, food, medicine, sewing, household, stoves, and farm.
At the turn of the century, the use of trade cards diminished. Magazine advertisements had become more affordable for common businesses. Post cards were the next popular collectible.
The Rise of the Pet Cat
Cats have not always been a popular house pet even though it is believed that they domesticated themselves nearly 10,000 years ago. It wasn’t until Queen Victoria famously kept 2 pet cats that having a cat became a trend. It didn’t take long for cats to capture the hearts of the Victorians. By the late 1800’s the first cat shows and cat fancy groups had begun and Louis Wain had given cats a new anthropomorphic look.
Naturally, cats made their way into advertising just as trade cards were also growing in popularity. The first advertisements using cats were seen around 1874. They were used to promote products from almost every category – some even show cats smoking cigars. No doubt these kitties brought plenty of business to the advertisers that used them.
A Gallery of Cats on Vintage Trade Cards
The vintage trade cards that feature cats are beautiful and clever. Since they were published before copyright laws were established in 1923, they are in the public domain. These images were found on the Boston Public Library’s Flickr account.
- White-black-colors-for-hand-machine.-front
- J. & P. Coats Best Six Cord, 200 yds, 50. [front]
- Wonderful soap Saves rubbing the clothes. GA Shoudy & Son, Rockford, Ill [front]
- White, black & colors for hand & machine. [front] 2
- What-are-the-babies-after-Lactated-Food-back
- -I-have-bought-it-Handy-Box-Shoe-Blacking-front
- J-P.-Coats-Best-Six-Cord-200-yds-50-front
- New-Home-Sewing-Machine-Co.-Our-clothes-are-made-on-the-New-Home-sewing-machine-front
- -One-pound-chests-Half-pound-chests-Jungle-Chop-Formosa-tea-front
- One-price-only.-J.-Leach.-Stationer-86-Nassau-Street-New-York.-Three-doors-from-Fulton.
- Well-sir-what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it-You-will-find-at-Frears front
- Empire-Wringer-Co.-Auburn-N.-Y.-front
- Clarks-Mile-End-Spool-Cotton
- Brooks-Spool-Cotton
Oh my dog, those are super cute!!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
I think so too! They are really beautiful images. We just don’t see ads like that today.
My favorite is the one of the guy at the table with the newspaper – it just shows that even in Victorian times, kitties knew they were allowed on the table, no matter what humans say!
That is a good one! I guess kitties haven’t changed too much 🙂 They have always been the ones in charge.
guys….thanx for sharin theeze cardz. they R awesum….de kitteh band card iz way kewl!! probablee we wood collect sum cardz like theeze if we could!
You’re welcome. I thought these were really pawsome too. The art is fantastically done. Who knows, maybe someday they will come back into style 🙂
OMC da kitty in da fwunt wiff a doggy looks a little…seductive. they put a hint of female bweasts on her. MOL
Luv ya’
Dezi and Lexi
MOL I think you are right! I didn’t really think about that when I was looking at it. Those naughty Victorians!
Those are adorable! I’ve seen a few of these reproduced in greeting cards, but I had no idea about the trading aspect. Fascinating stuff. Thanks for sharing!
Jean from Welcome to the Menagerie
You’re welcome. I totally agree. They are very beautiful cards. It’s too bad advertisements are this intelligent anymore.
Those are nice 🙂 I try not to collect things so probably not.
I understand what you are saying. There is never enough space or money to collect things these days. They are beautiful cards though. I enjoy having images of them online to look at 🙂
Whoa! I’ll bet that’s where those super rare Ty Cobb tobacco cards came from! TW inherited a scrapbook of cards and postcards. She’ll have to take it out and peruse it after Blogpaws.
Yup! I believe you are right. I found out about trade cards because my husband is an avid sport card and memorabilia collector. I think the kitty ones are better though! You will have to have TW put some pictures of the cool cards and postcards online. I would love to see them!
Thanks for this fun post! Mom says in the past she collected lots of things so probably would have, but now she has downsized tremendously.
You are very welcome! I can understand what your Mom is saying. I try to keep the clutter to a dull roar around here too. There is always more stuff than there is space!
Thanks for sharing the history of trade cards, so interesting. I love these vintage cards, I would definitely collect trade cards w/ both cats & dogs on them. Robin, I want to let you know that I have nominated you for a Liebster Award! I was nominated by Love Is Being Owned By A Husky, and I’ve nominated you and 3 other bloggers whom I admire. Please stop by my blog today to see your nomination and hopefully accept the award!
Love & Biscuits,
Dogs Luv Us and We Luv Them
Oh yay! Thank you for the award. I appreciate that you thought of me! I will stop by and check out what’s going on.
We had no idea there were such things as trading cards, but we would definitely collect them if they were still being produced today, but only with kitties on MOL!
I totally agree with you! My husband loves sports cards and all of that, but who wants pieces of cardboard with photos of awkwardly posed men on them? That’s silly. MOL Kitties are so much better. I would collect kitty cards too. 🙂
These are so awesome. And YES, I would collect these. I am really bad with collecting things. Or should I say good at it? 🙂 Thank you for sharing these!