Calendars and trade cards depicting costumed children playing, a family at a dinner table, a woman hiding a letter in a tree, a women passing a note to a man, a man playing a prank with a telescope and children riding on a folded paper horse with a stern man looking at them.

Trade cards were one of the most prevalent forms of advertising in the U.S. from around 1875 to 1900. They had their origin in England in the 1700s with tradesmen advertising their wares. The advent of lithography in the 1870s made it possible to mass-produce them in color. The Philadelphia 1876 Centennial Exhibition sparked the beginning, as many were passed out at that event.