Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: drop shadow

A late nineteenth-century label by Huntoon & Gorham, a cigar manufacturer. Note the Gaslight Style characteristics, with elaborate typefaces, curved text, drop shadows, and the rays of the sun shining out from behind the clouds. Huntoon & Gorham 45 Providence, R.I. Huntoon & Gorham

"The Order of Railroad Telegraphers, issued to B. H. Harding. Good until December 31st, 1915, unless revoked. H. B. Perham, president. L. W. Quick. grand secretary and treasurer."

A membership card for the Order of Railroad Telegraphers (ORT). As Wikipedia explains, "telegraphers would be stationed in individual depots along the railroad line in order to receive train orders from a centrally located dispatcher and report back on train movements; telegraphed train orders would be written out on paper and 'handed up' to the crews of passing trains." See also a 1915 version of the ORT membership card. The Order of Railroad Telegraphers Issued to L. W. Ricker. Good until June 30th 1900 unless revoked. W. V. Powell, president. H. B. Perham, secretary and treasurer. The Order of Railroad Telegraphers, Grand Division.

Edward Ridley & Sons, a New York City department store, printed this trade card for customers during the holiday season in 1880, and the store also took out newspaper ads to offer its "annual greeting." The other side of the trade card is a wintertime illustration of a little girl holding some toys as she stands in the snow. This side (above) features the store's Christmas greeting: 32nd Annual Greeting A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Toys, Dolls, and Holiday Presents. Edw. Ridley & Sons 309, 311, 311½ Grand St. 59 Orchard St. 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70 Allen St. New York The following excerpt from the store's advertisement in the New York Herald on December 5, 1880, provides additional details about its holiday sales: Thirty-second Annual Greeting Santa Claus' New Building. Opening Monday, December 6. First Floor—Endless variety toys, dolls, hobby horses. Also china, glass ware, &c. Second Floor--Work boxes, writing desks, Japanese varieties, &c., &c. Tuesday, December 7. Third Floor—Dolls, dolls, dolls. And everything belonging to a doll. Fourth Floor—Wednesday, December 8. Will contain toys of the very finest description…. Our new building gives 23,000 square feet. All devoted to toys. Come and see the toys and our methods. Worsted embroideries, slipper patterns, brackets, &c. Photo and auto[graph] albums, in plush, Russia[n] leather and French calf bindings. Handsome jewel and combination cases, pocketbooks, cigar cases, &c. Prices below every other house—we warrant.

This is the front of a Victorian-era trade card advertising a New York store (for the other side, see Christmas Greeting, Edward Ridley & Sons Department Store, New York City, 1880 ). I'm not sure why this wide-eyed little girl is taking all those toys with her out into the snow. She's dressed for the winter weather, however, and is even holding her hands—and her doll—in a muff to keep them warm.

John Matthes (1834-1894) was the proprietor of American House, a hotel in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. It's likely that this business card dates to around 1864, when Matthes ran a newspaper ad for American House. A later advertisement indicates that he was operating a wine and liquor store by 1873 (see below for the ads). American House Lebanon, Pa. Market Street, half-square south of Market House and one and a half squares from Court House. John Matthes, prop'r. The table is supplied with the best of edibles. The bar with the choicest of liquors. Extensive new stabling attached to the house. Handwritten name and year on the other side of the card : "Allen Longenecker, 1864." -------- Advertisement printed in the Lebanon Advertiser (Lebanon, Pa.), July 20, 1864, p. 4 : AMERICAN HOUSE, Market Street, Lebanon, JOHN MATTHES, Proprietor. The proprietor of this old established and popular HOTEL would respectfully inform the public that it will be conducted at all times to the comfort and convenience of its guests. It has been thoroughly refitted and renovated, and no pains will be spared to make the Table and the Bar, at all times, equal to any in the county. The STABLING and Yard are superior too, and more extensive, than any other in Lebanon. A new SHED is also in the course of erection, which will be completed in a short time. The patronage of the Farmers and the Traveling public generally is respectfully solicited. PLACE--West side of Market street, and half a square south from the Market House. JOHN MATTHES. Lebanon, April 6, 1864. -------- Advertisement in the Lebanon Daily News (Lebanon, Pa.), Jan. 9, 1873, p. 4: "John Matthes' Wholesale and Retail Wine & Liquor Store, No. 33 North 8th Street, Lebanon, Pa."

Littlefield & Hosmer Dealers in foreign and domestic fruits, butter, eggs, beans, &c. Oranges, lemons, bananas, and apples a specialty. Country produce sold on commission. No. 9 North Market Street, Boston. W. E. Littlefield, Chas. B. Hosmer. A book about the Leading Manufacturers and Merchants of the City of Boston (1885), p. 203, provides a history of this business, which operated under the name of Littlefield & Hosmer beginning in 1881: Littlefield & Hosmer , Dealers in Foreign and Domestic Fruits, No. 9 North Market Street. — The business conducted by this firm was established in 1866, and during the nineteen years of its career it has enjoyed a large measure of success. It was founded under the firm style of Littlefield & Enslin, and it was conducted under this title for fifteen years. On the retirement of Mr. Enslin, however, in 1881, he was succeeded by Mr. Charles R. Hosmer, and the style of the house was then changed to its present one of Littlefield & Hosmer. The firm occupy the basement floor, which is 20x40 feet in dimensions, and this is stocked with very choice selections of foreign and domestic fruits of every description. The firm makes a specialty of oranges, lemons, bananas, and apples, the former of which are shipped to them from the most celebrated producing districts of Jamaica, Central America, Florida, etc., and in these classes of fruits they conduct a good trade. They sell on commission all kinds of fruit, and prompt sales and liberal advances are made if required. All foreign fruits and vegetables are procured direct from the ship at their ultimate points of destination. The house enjoys a large city and suburban trade. The individual members of the firm are Mr. W. E. Littlefield and Mr. Charles B. Hosmer, both of whom were born in Maine, the former in 1837 and the latter in 1840.

A business card for Slaymaker, Barry and Company (later Slaymaker Lock Company ). Printed by D. B. Landis of Pluck Print, probably sometime in the 1890s. Slaymaker, Barry & Co. Manufacturers of Shelf Hardware Self Locking Scandinavian Pad-Locks Lancaster, Pa. John J. Kane

Frederick H. Stowe is listed as a "stove manufacturer" ("founder" is someone who owns or operates a foundry) in the Troy, New York, city directory for 1882, but the Troy directory for 1883 indicates that he "removed to Albany." After moving, he went into business with William F. Burden and operated a stove foundry in Albany under the name of Burden & Stowe from 1883 to 1887. Frederick H. Stowe, Stove Founder Manufacturer of ranges, cook and parlor stoves, sinks, hollow ware, &c. Troy, N.Y. Salesroom, corner of Paine and Hamilton Streets, Green Island. Presented by ________. Cohoes horse cars run within one block of the door.

"Holcomb & Caskey. Wholesale lumber, white pine, North Carolina pine, hemlock & cypress lumber, white pine, cedar and cypress shingles. Office, 18 Broadway, New York. Brooks Bank Note Co., Boston." Despite Holcomb & Caskey's impressive business card, the company filed for bankruptcy in 1911 after a little more than five years in business. A notice published in Hardwood Record , a lumber industry magazine, on May 25, 1911, p. 79, announced the demise of the company: "The Holcomb & Caskey Lumber Company, 940 Broadway, has filed a petition in bankruptcy. The nominal assets are $12,559 and liabilities $40,712. The company was incorporated in December, 1905, with a capital of $50,000. Richard E. Holcomb is president and Clayton R. Caskey vice-president. Mr. Caskey has organized the Clayton R. Caskey Lumber Company, taking over the headquarters of the old concern and will in the future conduct a general wholesale business on his own account."

"'No thanks,' said Banks, I want Cruikshank Delicious Apple Butter. Cruikshank Bros. Co., Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.A. Cubro Apple Butter. Net weight 2 lbs. avoir. H. Gamse & Bro. Litho., Balto., Md."

"Rice & Robinson Soap Co., Petroleum Soaps. Presented by O. S. Rice. E. S. Rice, president. R. L. Rice, v, pres't & gen'l mgr. J. C. Robinson, sec'y. E. H. Beardsley, treas. Trademark. Drake. First oil well, 1859. Titusville, Pa. G. H. Dunston, Buffalo, N.Y. Over." The Drake Well Museum near Titusville, Pennsylvania, includes a replica of the historic Drake Oil Well , which is featured in the illustration on this card.

"Augustus F. Siller, paper hanger, 437 Franklin St., Philadelphia, Pa." A nineteenth-century business card for a Philadelphia wallpaper hanger. For other late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century business and trade cards for paper hangers, see A. B. Tack, Practical Paper Hanger and Decorator, Harrisburg, Pa. , A. E. Cobaugh, Paper Hanging, Falmouth, Pa., 1902 , and Frescoing! House and Sign Painting, E. A. Weis, Reading, Pa. (see below).

A vintage luggage label from the Hotel Astoria in Vienna, Austria.

"Adirondack Steamboat Co. Pass E. D. Bennett, G. Supt., Bennington & Rutland Railway, until December 31st, 1897, unless otherwise ordered. George Sweet, president. No. 1932. American Bank Note Co., N.Y."

"Baltimore Steam Packet Co. Bay Line, 1911. Pass Mr. John F. Auch, Frt Traf. Mgr-–Philadelphia & Reading Rwy, until December 31st unless otherwise ordered. John R. Sherwood, president & general manager. No. 1726. Not valid unless countersigned by W. W. Erdman or myself. Florida." According to Wikipedia, "The Baltimore Steam Packet Company , nicknamed the Old Bay Line, was an American steamship line from 1840 to 1962 that provided overnight steamboat service on the Chesapeake Bay , primarily between Baltimore, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia." The steamer Florida , which is pictured on the pass, was a propeller-driven, steel-hulled vessel built by the Maryland Steel Company in 1907. For another illustration of the ship, see Steam Packets on the Chesapeake: A History of the Old Bay Line since 1840 (Centreville, Md.: Tidewater Publishers, 1961), by Alexander Crosby Brown, p. 82. John F. Auch was a freight traffic manager for the Philadelphia and Reading Railway , which later changed its name to the Reading Railroad and was immortalized as one of the railroads featured on the Monopoly game board. Compare this pass with an Adirondack Steamboat Company Pass, 1897 :

"E. Butterick & Co., designers of fashions, publishers and pattern manufacturers. 171, 173, 175, & 177 Regent Street, London, W. 555 Broadway and Union Square, New York. J. W. Wilder, managing partner."

"Sun-Ray Cigar. Pleasing to all. Mild and fragrant."