Cabinet card photograph of a child advertising Laurel Flour

Cabinet card photograph of a young girl wearing a bib that reads, "My mamma uses Laurel Flour." 5.5 x 4 inches mounted to 6.5 x 4.25 card. Very Good with light surface soil and rubbing at corners. A variation on the more well-known "Atlas Flour Babies," a 1905 version of viral marketing that targeted (and depended on) women to be both audience and participant as the medium progressed from print ad, to printed object, to image with the printed object, and back to print ad again. This Laurel Flour iteration was possibly executed in New London, CT by Hale's Photography Studio in the spring of 1905. Local Laurel Flour distributor Humphrey & Cornell advertised in The Day: "Your Baby's Picture Taken FREE...One half dozen beautiful, full sized cabinet photographs of any child under 5 years of age.”

The ad was effectively the same as those being printed in the Midwest for Atlas Flour, which had orchestrated a widespread marketing campaign, "The 'Atlas Flour' Babies." In February 1905, newspapers began advertising free Atlas Flour baby bibs available at local grocery stores, followed by the announcement that photographs of babies wearing the Atlas Flour bibs were to be published in newspapers nationwide: "A very novel feature in newspaper advertising is being introduced by the Atlas Flour Mills... thousands of babies wearing the atlas baby bids have been photographed, and their pictures are being published in the newspapers throughout the country these which will soon appear in the columns of this are of great interest, especially to women, and the idea is certainly a very unique one." (Fort Wayne Journal, Feb 13, 1905, p.5).

Surely enough, the Atlas Flour Babies began appearing in newspaper ads for the flour and free bibs available at local grocers. According to the hard-knocks recollections of Midwesterner George Love, it was Atlas “company's practice to send photographers roaming through city streets,” offering mothers to take their child’s photo if they’d don the bib--one such photo of the author’s brother appears on the dust jacket of the book (I Never Thought We’d Make It, 1952, p.63).

While Laurel Flour was evidently following Atlas' lead with the photo campaign (itself a turn on the "banner ladies" cabinet card photos) there is evidence that the promotional bib itself began with Laurel Flour, who advertised in the Altoona Tribune from June 25-Aug 20, 1902, “Send your name and address to H. J. White & Co. and get free a Laurel flour bib for the baby.” Timelines aside, the Laurel Flour version of both campaigns was comparatively half-baked--the expense of mailing bibs and funding family photos without the promotional buzz of the Atlas Flour Babies campaign (proto-viral marketing) surely netted meager financial returns.