trade card, child and cat (naughty puss), Dr. Jayne's Medicines, unknown maker from the United States; Sarony, Major, & Knapp

What does a cat scratch have to do with a cough and cold? According the advertising text, “Naughty Puss!” is the twelfth in an advertising series for Dr. Jayne’s Medicines. The company expresses its hopes that its current card is “accepted as an agreeable medium for impressing on all that when once a cold is contracted, it should have prompt treatment.” Dr. David Jayne, one of the most successful patent medicine-makers in the 19th century, promoted his products by using finely crafted graphics to stick in a potential customer’s memory. Distributed as attractive giveaways by wholesalers, traveling salesmen, or local stores, business trade cards announced products and companies, blurring the boundaries of art and commerce. With the promise of individual products and aspirations for a better life, these marketing images were collected as keepsakes and home adornment in the late 19th and early 20th century United States. Sallie Casey Thayer acquired many objects for her extensive art collection, with works ranging from American paintings, Japanese Buddhist sculptures, European ceramics, Native American textiles and much more, including business trade cards. Why do you think Thayer included trade cards in the collection she gave to form an art museum at the University of Kansas? Find a recent advertisement for coughs, colds, sore throats, or something similar and compare it to Dr. Jayne’s card. What visual and textual messages are used? What forms of advertisement have replaced the trade card? What types of advertising do you find to be most effective and how? Would you collect contemporary forms of advertisement, and for what reasons?