{"id":18629,"date":"2025-07-09T07:00:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T07:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/?p=18629"},"modified":"2025-07-01T20:25:41","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T20:25:41","slug":"may-i-have-your-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/09\/may-i-have-your-card\/","title":{"rendered":"May I Have Your Card and Give You Mine? The Pfeiffer Trade Card Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Cardillo, Digital Collections and Preservation<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We\u2019re excited to continue our series spotlighting collections now available on our new digital platform, Quartex, with a look at the Gordon A. Pfeiffer Nineteenth-Century Delaware Trade Card Collection.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what exactly is a trade card? Think of it as the ancestor of the modern business card. Trade cards typically included the name of a proprietor, business address and contact information, often paired with lists of goods or services and eye-catching illustrations.<\/span><\/p>\n

This fascinating collection largely features trade cards from merchants located on or near Wilmington\u2019s Market Street. Together, they highlight the growing availability of goods and services in Delaware\u2019s downtown city centers during the nineteenth century. The vibrant, highly decorative cards also reflect the evolution of advertising as it began to target a rising middle class \u2014 and many reveal the social attitudes of the time regarding race, gender and class. Pfeiffer\u2019s original arrangement of the collection is preserved: two alphabetically organized series \u2014 by Merchant and by Location.<\/span><\/p>\n

Below are a few examples from the collection:<\/span><\/p>\n

The first one depicts <\/span>Little Red Riding Hood<\/span><\/a> on the front, while the back promotes a cure \u201cfor bilious disorders and all troubles arising from a torpid or congested liver.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Color

Color illustration of girl standing in a doorway wrapped in a red cape against a snowy forest background in the snow.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Textual

Textual advertisement for Dr. Jayne’s products. Text identifies illustration as “Little Red-Riding-Hood” ninth in their Album card series. Textual Baker business information.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another example is a card from <\/span>Meyers<\/span><\/a>, a clothier, advertising men\u2019s suits \u2014 complete with an attention-grabbing illustration on the front and details on the back.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Color

Color illustration of a portrait of a dog. Textual business information.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Textual

Textual advertisement and business information.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Not all trade cards had such a design.\u00a0 Here is an example from <\/span>Sam E. Smyth\u2019s China, Glass and Crockery<\/span><\/a>, which had illustration and proprietor information on the front with a blank back.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Color

Color illustration of a young hunter giving a young girl a bunch of dead birds. Textual business information.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The collection also includes cards from businesses like <\/span>J. and J. N. Harman<\/span><\/a>\u2019s furniture store, showcasing elegant furniture available at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Color

Color illustration of a young girl holding a rabbit. Textual business information.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

You can explore even more of these colorful glimpses into Delaware\u2019s commercial past through the digital collection \u2014 and learn more about the physical collection via the Special Collections <\/span>finding aid<\/span><\/a>, which mirrors the digital archive.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By David Cardillo, Digital Collections and Preservation   We\u2019re excited to continue our series spotlighting collections now available on our new digital platform, Quartex, with a look at the Gordon A. Pfeiffer Nineteenth-Century Delaware Trade Card Collection. But what exactly …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":18638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-collections","category-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 03:09:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18629"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18639,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18629\/revisions\/18639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}