Totally Toledo

Victorian trade cards were highly popular in their hey-day. Women and children collected them and pasted them in scrapbooks. The scrapbooks were highly prized, as color pictures were a rarity at the time. By the end of the nineteenth century, both newspapers and magazines had become prolific and a better means to advertise to the public. Trade cards were no longer in vogue and ceased to exist. Small and plain business cards remained in fashion, but the trade card lost popularity. Over the decades, scrapbooks of cards were disposed of or forgotten. Victorian trade cards were popular from about 1877 to the turn of the twentieth century. Once chromolithography was perfected to make color pictures cheaply, businesses of all kinds began using these cards to advertise their goods. Some businesses just stamped their information on the cards, but others, like the Woolson Spice Company, offered gifts of curtains or pictures or all kinds of items in return for a number of their cards or logos from their cards. This book offers a unique look at the end of the nineteenth century through Victorian trade cards. These cards were used to advertise all kind of good and services available to the people of Toledo. This book highlights 58 different businesses from the 1880's to the turn of the twentieth century. These cards are all from the author's collection amassed over the last twenty-five years. The information about the businesses and their owners came from city directories, census records, and local history books.