Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: sewing

"Roberts & Co., leading clothiers, 'glass front,' 797 Broad St., Newark, N.J. Copyright 1883 by J. H. Bufford's Sons." A winged Cupid, who's wearing a shirt but no pants, waits patiently as two women use needles and thread to mend a gigantic pair of pants. Although pants seem to be an appropriate item to feature in an advertising trade card for a clothing store like Roberts & Co. (whose glass store front was apparently a selling point), I'm not sure why they're so huge or how Cupid is going to wear them. Perhaps this is just a silly scene intended to amuse the children who would paste cards like this in their scrapbooks in the late nineteenth century.

"Don't cry, Johny. We have a new White Sewing Machine that will sew you all up so you will stay. W. J. Morgan & Co, Cleveland, O."

"The 'Standard,' our name is our motto. 2000 turns in a minute, clear the track! Standard Rotary Shuttle. Compliments of the Standard Sewing Machine Co., Cleveland, O. The Standard Rotary Shuttle Sewing Machine, the lightest, quietest, swiftest running machine in the world. ________, agent. Johns & Co. Lith., Cleveland, O." In the illustration on this nineteenth-century advertising trade card, the winner of the bike race is riding a high-wheel bicycle--or " penny-farthing "--that was somehow constructed using a giant version of one of the Standard Sewing Machine Company's rotary shuttles as one of the wheels. The cyclist following the winner wasn't using a rotary-shuttle wheel, so it's not surprising that he is falling flat on his face. The obvious superiority of the winner's equipment hasn't been lost on the three immaculately dressed women and the young girl, all of whom have been watching the race. They're all staring intently at the winning cyclist, and one woman even appears to be waving her handkerchief at him. I suspect that all of the women and perhaps even the girl went out and purchased a Standard rotary shuttle sewing machine as soon as the race was over.

"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."