Jay T. Last Collection of Household Prints and Ephemera

The Jay T. Last Collection of Household Prints and Ephemera contains over 7,900 printed items advertising household items, products, and related businesses in the United States from the 1830s to the 1920s, with the bulk of the items spanning from 1850 to 1900. The collection consists largely of lithographed ephemera produced for American businesses affiliated with the manufacture, distribution, and sale of furnishings, appliances, cleaning products, and related tools and supplies. Pets and pet products are also found here.

Materials are arranged in two series: small-size items (11 x 14 inches or less) and large-size items (more than 11 x 14 inches). Small-size items are described broadly at the series level; large-size items and select small-size items are fully inventoried and all printers, artists, and publishers are indexed by name. The collection includes over 80 large-size items comprised mainly of lithographed advertising prints and leaflets for cleaning products, furnishings, tools, and appliances. Small-size items number approximately 7,835 and contain a variety of promotional materials including trade cards, handbills, leaflets, and printed billheads and letterheads with and without manuscript text.

Materials are further divided into four subseries: cleaning products, furnishings, pets, and tools and appliances. Cleaning products include soaps, polishes, bleaches and ammonias, starches, and pest control. Furnishings include lighting, furniture, clocks and art objects, tableware, doors and other architectural components, as well as the manufacturers and retailers of these goods. Pets include depictions of domestic animals as well as the supplies and products used for their care. Tools and appliances include brooms, irons, and kitchenware as well as refrigerators, freezers, sewing machines, stoves and ranges, and washers.

The collection supports various fields of research relating to home decorating, housekeeping, laundering, and washing including products used to adorn interiors and exteriors, clean and maintain clothes, polish and preserve household objects, tidy living spaces, cleanse the human body, and care for family pets. The images provide a resource for studying American domesticity and related industries in the 19th and early 20th centuries, along with the evolution of advertising strategies. The items also offer insight to consumer buying habits, brand loyalty, and popular use for a variety of household items and products. As graphic materials, the collection highlights developing techniques and trends in printmaking while documenting the artists, engravers, lithographers, printers, and publishers involved in the creative process.

Note: Food starch and laundry starch are grouped together because both were often made or distributed by the same companies and advertised together.