Jay T. Last Collection of Personal Care Prints and Ephemera

The Jay T. Last Collection of Personal Care Prints and Ephemera contains approximately 865 printed items related to grooming and personal care in the United States from approximately 1832 to 1931, with the bulk of the content dating from 1860 to 1900. Most items are lithographs, but engravings and woodcuts are also included. The collection deals with products and services relating to grooming, cleansing, and preserving one's hair, scalp, skin, or teeth to promote individual hygiene or to beautify one's appearance. Materials focus on consumer goods or acts of assistance that do not require medical direction to purchase or use. Such products include cosmetics, hair oils, perfumes, razors, shaving creams, shampoos, skin lotions, talcum powder, toothpaste, tooth powder, brushes, combs, hair pins, and wigs. Such services include barbers, hairdressers, wigmakers, and styling salons. 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.

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 with printers, artists, and publishers indexed by name. The collection includes 14 large-size items comprised mainly of advertising prints and leaflets. Small-size items number approximately 850 and contain a variety of materials, including trade cards, stationery, calendars, leaflets, and printed billheads and letterheads (with and without manuscript text).