During the 19th century, the ever-popular trade card was a way for American businesses to effectively promote their goods and services. Some examples include a colorful business card depicting freshly caught mackerel in a net (appropriately enough for "Deep Sea Mackerel") and the Charter Oak Lawn Mower, which feature two Victorian women enjoying a leisurely mowing session in a pastoral setting. This online collection was created by Harvard Business School's Baker Library, which happens to have over 8000 of these cards. The online archive contains around 1000 cards which date from the 1870s to the 1890s. Visitors can search this archive via Harvard's Visual Information Access (VIA) union catalog which will allow them to focus in on subjects of particular interest. Finally, visitors can also avail themselves of the site's digital exhibition entitled "A New and Wonderful Invention: The Nineteenth-Century American Trade Card".
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