Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild was a man of exquisite taste, and his penchant for eighteenth century life and society manifested itself in several Continental shopping sprees. In 1891 the Baron acquired a significant collection of printed paper ephemera related to various trades. These volumes contain over 700 trade cards, or early shop advertisements, and in 2004 Waddesdon Manor and the University of Warwick teamed up to create a research project that would digitize these trade cards. The trade cards database allows users to search by types of object, trades, or types of products.