An excellent collection of trade & calling cards from Mass., Vermont, & New Hampshire, ca. 1880s-1890; plus rewards of merit ca. 1870s+

Leather backed cloth boards, 10.5 x 8 inches. A repurposed notebook laden with 240 calling cards, business/trade cards, and rewards of merit. 25 leaves, some loose or with pieces cut out. 10 pages of visible manuscript content at rear, mostly scattered notes and a little poetry (including an excerpt, “But blame us women not if some appear too cold at time, and some too gay & light, Some griefs grow deep. Some woes are hard to bear.”)

An encapsulation of graphic tastes and business concerns of the period. From a visual perspective, the range (or, in many cases, repetition) speaks to trends—and the inevitable repetition of groups who patronize the same job printer, as suggested by the patterned paper variations and whatever paper finish has disintegrated into powder, effacing about 10-15 of the cards.

Includes 214 printed calling and business cards, 8 manuscript or autograph cards, 17 rewards of merit, and 1 printed invitation. Among the standouts: Frank H. Sargent, “Geologist and collector of specimens;" a birch bark ; a trade card for physician/surgeon/tooth extractor W. F. Wallace; a gilt Oddfellows card for Will P. Holt; a hand-written card for E. F. Parker, Hairdresser, Springfield Mass; a color-printed trade card for Miss J. M. Thompson, Milliner & Dress Maker of Manchester, NH; autograph of F. F. Palmer, Mansion House, Greenfield, Mass; Mrs. M. E. Perkins, “Wadleigh’s fashionable ‘Head Gear’ Rooms, Boston; and Henry Little’s card, with Spencerian flourished dove.