The Fulton Street Trade Card Collection consists of 245 late 19th and early 20th century illustrated trade cards, all emanating from businesses in Brooklyn's historic commercial thoroughfare. The cards combine humor, bright and elegant graphic design and typography to promote a wide variety of wares and services. The Fulton Street trade cards are among the many collections held by the Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library's local history division, and the world's largest public archive for the study of Brooklyn's social and cultural history.

Related Brooklyn Resources

• Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online™ (1841-1902): Brooklyn's daily newspaper ran for 114 years, from 1841 to 1955. Winner of four Pulitzer Prizes, the newspaper printed local, national and international news, keeping offices in Washington, London and Paris.

• The Brooklyn Theater Playbills and Programs Collection consists of 800 playbills and programs from 1875 to 1972 for motion pictures, musical concerts, high school commencement exercises, lectures, photoplays, vaudeville, and burlesque, as well as the more traditional offerings such as plays and operas, all from Brooklyn theaters.

• Illustrated Covers from the Brooklyn Sheet Music Collection: the Brooklyn Sheet Music Collection consists of 102 pieces of sheet music all celebrating or emanating from the borough of Brooklyn. With the earliest pieces dating from the 1880s and the latest from about 1970, the music spans almost a century of social change.

Many Fulton Street Trade Cards have links to related articles in the online repository. Articles may provide historic pricing information, notice of special sales or offers, criminal activity, gossip, name changes, and/or location changes. For example, Cowperthwait's trade card is related to a corresponding advertisement featuring pricing information of such items as baby carriages, ice chests, and refrigerators found in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online™:

Please look for links to related Brooklyn Daily Eagle articles in the card detail or the card large view pages.

View the related items in a split screen view.

Other Related Digital Resources
Brooklyn's historic newspaper, manuscripts, photographs, and rare children's books... some of Brooklyn Public Library's most distinctive collections are available online. View BPL's Digital Collections. For historic views of Fulton Street, view the Brooklyn Collection's Historic Photographs.

Advisory
Some of the trade cards may illustrate offensive stereotypes. Such materials should be viewed in the context of their relevant time periods.

The Fulton Street Trade Card Collection digitization project was supported in part by funds from the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) through the New York State Regional Bibliographic Databases Program.

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