Advertisements, billheads, and trade cards

Description

This series in the Ephemera Collection contains advertising matter, billheads, and trade cards. These resources provide a wealth of visual documentation for the study of New England's material culture in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The focus of the collection is concentrated on products used in the construction, finish, or interior decoration of the home, including millwork, wall and floor coverings, paints, furniture, lighting, heating, and wallpaper. Several rare furniture and lighting catalogues are found in this collection.

Advertising matter in Boston guidebooks and in a collection of nineteenth century carpenters' manuals and house plans has also been indexed by subjects. The inventories to these collections supply references to illustrations. After 1848, the Boston city directories are an excellent source of detailed line engravings of buildings and products.

Source: Guide to the Library and Archives, 21.