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Page 14 The Antique Shoppe January, 2018
Welcoming the New Year

VINTAGE ADVERTISING CALENDARS

by Roy Nuhn
thousands -sometimes in the millions-
Calendars have always played an of copies each year by nearly every
important role in the everyday life of national company doing retail trade.
most Americans. Besides their utilitarian They were also sold in wholesale
value, however, people have always quantities by such prominent suppliers
enjoyed the interesting and colorful as Brown & Bigelow as general
illustrations adorning them. Lovely stock, with personalized advertising
women, beautiful landscapes, historical overprinted, to local stores, shops and
and patriotic scenes, sweet-faced businesses in large cities and small
children and many other themes have towns throughout America.
long been depicted on the monthly They proved to be great year-long
pages. advertising since they kept the ad
Little wonder, then, that vintage message and the vendor’s name in front
calendars hold strong appeal for of the consumer.
nostalgia buffs. Mass produced since They came in a variety of shapes Basically, advertising calendars One of the largest providers of
the middle of the Victorian era, nearly and sizes, including die-cuts in the break down into three types: advertising calendars was the C.J.
two centuries worth of these pictorial form of butterflies, fans, flowers and Functional: Small-sized booklets Hood Co. of Lowell, Massachusetts.
treasures await collectors. other designs. The individual months Almanac-style with all sorts of helpful Established in 1876, the firm
A minor by-product of Gutenberg’s either clustered around a large, central information for the farmer and city manufactured a wide range of over-
invention of illustration or were dweller alike. For a couple of decades the-counter patent medicines, including
movable type, intermixed with after the Civil war, drug companies, feed their best-selling sarsaparilla. Hood’s
the first printed several pictorials. and grain stores, insurance agencies, “Calendar Girl” concept was a national
calendar was an Thicker paper stock and the railroads distributed functional favorite.
effort by a Vienna was often used and calendars as free handouts. The calendars were part of the
University professor, many had folds, so Wall: Includes the regular, traditional company’s giant giveaway program
Johannes de they could stand up format with four to twelve pages; also, which also offered album cards and
Gamundia, in 1472. on counter tops. the card size with a hole in the top pictorial story books for boys and
His calendar had Along with trade center for easy hanging on a nail on the girls. From 1891 to the early 1920s,
12 narrow, vertical cards, ink blotters, wall. These two styles were faraway the Hood gave away more than five million
columns - one for souvenir postcards, norm from the 1890s to the late 1930s. calendars every year.
each month - with children’s booklets Multi-folded: To be stood up. By Also, heavily involved were Swift, the
the individual days and paper play 1900 this format had significantly faded ham and bacon folks, and Chicago-based
enhanced with toys, calendars in popularity. N.K. Fairbanks Co. for its Fairy brand
religious references. were one of the Advertising giveaways by the nation’s bar soap. Each year these and other
Nearly three great advertising manufacturers and service industries, firms advertised their free advertising
centuries later, here giveaways of the as well as local merchants, began calendars - sometimes a product
in colonial America, late 19th and early in earnest with the 1876 centennial wrapper or two was required - in the
the great scientific 20th centuries. Exposition in Philadelphia, which December and January editions of the
innovator and Advertised was celebrated American’s 100th birthday. nation’s magazines, such as Collier’s and
patriot, Benjamin everything from Fairgoers were offered hundreds, if not The Youth’s Companion.
Franklin, introduced patent medicine thousands, of all types of advertising- On the local level, banks, pharmacies
the modern version and all types of laden freebies, including a few and insurance agents were among
of the calendar in food products calendars, even though the year had the greatest users of calendars for
the 1750s editions to cosmetics, begun a few months earlier. advertising. They were circulated to
of his iconic Poor household items Calendars were published and current and prospective customers.
Richard’s Almanac. like soap, and distributed in the hundreds of Continued on Page 17
Then came farming equipment,
the Industrial as well as rifles,
Revolution and the ammunition and
emergence of a truly clothing for the
national economy. hunter. Hardy
The ordinary Page from a general stock 1949 calendar anything used in
calendar was with local advertising by a West Coast the daily routine
changed forever. appliance wholesaler. of life, as well as
It now became for its pleasures,
almost solely an advertising medium escaped being promoted on a calendar.
and remained that way for several Calendars were similar to trade
generations. It quickly developed into cards and tobacco cards of the 19th
an effective tool in many companies’ century in their diversity of lithographic
advertising strategy. illustrations. There was heavy emphasis
On a general basis, Victorian-era on beautiful women, adorable children
calendars were unlike today’s wall types. and some patriotics. But little portrayal Ink blotter used for month-by-month local advertising. Popular cartoon character
Most were small and quite delicate and of sports - an indication perhaps of the “Gran’pop,” a chimp cavorts on this January 1945 entry.
offered the whole year on a single sheet. main appeal being to housewives. Above: Die-cut, fan-shaped format with advertising by Gold Dust Soap (1880s/90s.)