Online Exhibition of 19th Century Trade Cards

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Over the years, Nach Waxman, the founder of Kitchen Arts and Letters bookstore on the Upper East Side, collected illustrated trade cards, as some covet baseball cards. These little fliers from about 1870 to 1900 advertised food and other products. Mr. Waxman donated around 6,500 cards to his alma mater, Cornell University, which is presenting some of them in an online exhibition. They offer a worthwhile glimpse at everything from hairdos to baking to recreation, reflecting the fashions of those times: Trade Cards: An Illustrated History, Cornell University Library Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, http://rmc.library.cornell.edu.

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