Object Details
Advertiser
Babbitt, B.T.
Author
Stephens, Ann Sophia
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. Caption at lower left in illustration. Text is entitled "Beautiful Tribute to Women." Image of two children in balloon, dropping bars of soap over the side. This 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_ref547
Local Numbers
Ivorydata4 873
0300600028 (Scan No., front & back of card shown.)
Topic
Balloonists
Children in advertising
Women in advertising
Hot air balloons
Soap
Advertiser
Babbitt, B.T.
Author
Stephens, Ann Sophia
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., 13.5 x 10 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.
Bibliography
Featured in "A Tribute to Women: Babbitt, Soap, and Mothers," SIRIS blog by David Haberstich, 6 May 2011: http://si-siris.blogspot.com/2011/05/tribute-to-women-babbitt-soap-and.html
Genre/Form
Advertising cards
Series Restrictions
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Soap_ref547
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep87ca3fb47-3f7b-4e6c-8aa0-2af94d4a1432
NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Soap
ACAH
Record ID
ebl-1562725817793-1562725817837-1