Ads from the 1880s
25 ads and videos in the library ran between 1880 and 1889.
Most common in these ads
Goals
- Build the brand 12 ads and videos
- Sell now 9 ads and videos
- Stand for something 2 ads and videos
Industries
- Health and medicine 7 ads and videos
- Beauty and personal care 5 ads and videos
- Fashion and jewellery 4 ads and videos
Patterns
- Mail-order catalog 6 ads and videos
- Utility premium 5 ads and videos
- Keepable trade card 4 ads and videos
The ads
Cuticura Soap and Remedies trick drawing advertisement, 1888
Seven healthy boys owe their clear skin and hair to Cuticura, and parents whose children got worse under doctor after doctor say the remedies cured them.
Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound advertisement, 1882
A real woman, pictured and signing "Yours for Health," sells to women on the ground that "Woman can Sympathize with Woman," and answers their letters herself.
Charles Leroux parachute flight flyer
One flight only: the famous American aeronaut Charles Leroux will rise alone, without a gondola, to 5000 feet and come back down on a parachute he invented.
Jordan Marsh & Co. spring and summer mail-order catalog cover, 1885
Four round vignettes show every step after an order is posted, from the letter being read to the parcel at the door, so shopping by mail looks safe and routine.
Montgomery Ward catalog No. 38 cover, fall and winter 1885
Ward's is a real supply house for Grange farmers, with a Chicago building, busy departments and stock on hand, selling at wholesale by mail.
Sapolio ad for Boston's 250th anniversary, 1880
Boston's golden dome shines because cherubs scrub it with Sapolio, a civic joke that doubles as a demonstration of what the soap does.
Ivory is gentle enough to wash sores on a horse and clean harness leather without cracking it, because it is made from healing vegetable oils, not harsh alkali.
Pears' Soap "This is the way we wash our hands" ad, 1888
Ordinary soaps can harm a child's delicate skin, so careful parents choose pure Pears' Transparent Soap and make washing with it a happy morning routine.
Pears' Soap gives soft, white and beautiful hands, shown by an elegant ringed hand holding up the cake itself.
Singer sewing machines advertisement with angels, colour lithograph
Singer is a prize-winning maker crowned by angels with millions of machines sold, yet any family in Coimbra can own one for a small weekly payment.
Strawbridge & Clothier's Quarterly store magazine, 1882
A fashion magazine and a store catalogue in one: read the season's advice on what is becoming, then order the goods by mail from Strawbridge & Clothier.
Burpee's Farm Annual seed catalog, 1881
Burpee's seeds are warranted first-class and recommended by planters everywhere, with letters from named growers as proof and every mail-order risk carried by the seller.
Burpee's Farm Annual seed catalog, 1888
Burpee removes the distance of mail order: postage paid, safe arrival guaranteed, money covered in transit, and prize-winning grower essays that teach buyers to grow the crops profitably.
Hostetter's illustrated California almanac, 1887
The St. George engraving on the cover becomes the advice inside: meet disease the way the champion met the dragon, at once and at close quarters, with Hostetter's Stomach Bitters.
Hostetter's illustrated United States almanac
An almanac grown to over 10,000,000 copies a year in nine languages, so Hostetter's reaches immigrant households in their own tongue, with tables that working families actually use.
Peter Henderson & Co. Everything for the Garden catalogue, 1881
Everything for the garden from one establishment, run by practical growers who test every seed and refuse to promise what no seedsman can control.
Radway's almanac and guide to health, 1888
A yearly almanac that pairs calendars and eclipse tables with Radway's three-remedy system, sold as gentle modern medicine in place of the old lancet and harsh drugs.
St. Jacobs Oil family calendar and book of health and humor, 1885
A comic almanac by America's leading humorists that launches St. Jacobs Oil in Britain under one slogan held up on the cover: It Conquers Pain.
Beecham language of flowers and boudoir calendar, 1887
A keepsake for the boudoir, a dictionary of what each flower means plus a year's calendar, with Beecham's Pills 'worth a guinea a box' on the pages around it.
Pears' Soap Good Morning ad, 1889
Hitch the brand to the greeting everyone already says each morning, so "Good morning" runs straight into the question "Have you used Pears' Soap?"
Clark's Mile-End Spool Cotton calendar trade card, 1881
A full calendar for 1881 under a Clark's Mile-End masthead, so the thread brand is seen every time someone checks a date, all year.
Clark's Mile-End Spool Cotton calendar trade card, 1882
A folding pocket calendar for 1882 whose trade mark is drawn as the end of a real spool, thread size and all, on both halves of the card.
Farina cologne-maker trade card, 1888
The address is the brand: the Farina opposite the Jülichs-Platz, shown as a real building, presents itself as the oldest distiller of eau de Cologne.
Clark's Mile-End Spool Cotton calendar trade card (reverse), 1883
A calendar for the whole of 1883 that puts the Clark's Mile-End trademark oval above every month, with the year set into the mark itself.
Kodak "You Press the Button, We Do the Rest" ad, 1889
Photography without learning photography: the owner only presses a button, and the factory does every technical step, from finishing the pictures to reloading the camera.
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