Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Object of the Day: A Trade Card for Soapine





Between all the Scrofula, quinsy, soot, railroads, and general dirt, the Nineteenth Century was not the most cleanest time period—especially when compared to today.  So, despite all of the overall loveliness of the era, homemakers and maids had a lot of muck with which to deal.  Also consider that most people didn’t have the closets full of clothes that we have these days.  Clothing was worn over and over again and it needed to be laundered properly.  And, doing the laundry didn’t mean popping a few whites into the washing machine and then going about your business.  Laundry was back-breaking work—steaming, boiling, rough, skin-cracking, sweaty, awful work.  Enter Soapine by the Kendall Manufacturing Company to attempt to make it a trifle easier.

Soapine was a laundry and general household use soap.  And, like many products of the era, it claimed to do more than it actually did.  The Kendall Manufacturing Company knew the value of advertising and produced a great number of attractive and collectible trade cards which boasted the miraculous properties of their product.

Here’s one.

On the obverse, we see a boy dressed in nobby fashion in a smart little suit and bowler hat.  For some reason, he’s climbed an electrical pole.  That new-fangled technology was the beginning of an easier home life and was, of course, quite fascinating.  So, it’s only natural that electrical images would be used to demonstrate that a product was current and cutting-edge.  In this scene, a group of protesting birds has spelled out “Soapine.”  The only text is two white lines, “KENDALL MFG Co./PROVIDENCE, R.I.”

The reverse reads:

Soapine
IS THE BEST ARTICLE KNOWN
For the Laundry and General Household Use.

USE NO SOAP.

Sal Soda, Borax, Washing Crystals or other Preparations with it.
For Washing Dishes, Glass Ware, Silver Ware, Milk Cans,
Dairy Utensils, Windows, Marble, Paint or Oil Cloth, and House Cleaning,

Use Soapine.

Kendall Mfg. Co.
Established 1827.    Providence, R.I.

Now, I’m sure it was good for cleaning, but I’m not quite convinced that I’d care to use the same soap to wash my windows that I use on my laundry.  But, then again, I don’t have Scrofula stains on my collars nor the soot of the Industrial Revolution on my window panes.  



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