Object Details
Advertiser
Babbitt, B.T.
Artist
Bufford
Series Creator
Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
Series Citation
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Soap, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Scope and Contents
Advertising card for B.T. Babbitt's Best Soap and Soap Powder. Text on verso is captioned "Beautiful Tribute to Women." Image on front of children sledding in sleds built with Babbitt's soap powder boxes. Text is entitled "Beautiful Tribute to Women." Image of two children in balloon, dropping bars of soap over the side. The text is quoted from a short story by Ann Sophia Stephens, "The Queen of a Week," published in "The Ladies' Companion," Jan. 1839, pp. 144-146.
sova.nmah.ac.0060.s01.01.soap_ref546
Local Numbers
Ivorydata4 872
0300600027 (Scan No.: both sides of card.)
Topic
Sleds
Children in advertising
Women in advertising
Play
Winter
Advertiser
Babbitt, B.T.
Artist
Bufford
See more items in
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Soap
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Soap / Business Records, Marketing Material, and Other
Sponsor
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Biographical / Historical
Benjamin Talbot Babbitt (1809-1889), according to Wikipedia, "was a self-made American businessman and inventor who amassed a fortune in the soap industry, manufacturing Babbitt's Best Soap." He held more than one hundred patents and invented his own processes to manufacture various types of soap, including the first soap in the form of individual bars. He was also considered an advertising genius, and his soap was among the first nationally advertised products. Unfortunately, his name became sullied when Sinclair Lewis chose "Babbitt" for the name of a vulgar businessman in his eponymous novel of 1922.
Extent
1 Item (col., 10 x 13.5 cm.)
Condition
Good condition.
Container
Box 1, Folder 10
Archival Repository
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Type
Archival materials
Advertising cards
Series Rights
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Genre/Form
Advertising cards
Restrictions
Unrestricted research use on site by appointment. Reproduction restrictions due to copyright.
NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Soap_ref546
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8aea03a46-05de-4995-a924-25e72d4faf10
NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Soap
ACAH
Record ID
ebl-1562725817793-1562725817837-0