Trade cards depicting men : playing a lute with a potted plant on his head, playing a drum, instructing trained mice, with a drum and monkey, with a fan and butterflies, singing in a clowns suit.

Trade cards were one of the most prevalent forms of advertising in the U.S. from around 1875 to 1900. They had their origin in England in the 1700s with tradesmen advertising their wares. The advent of lithography in the 1870s made it possible to mass-produce them in color. The Philadelphia 1876 Centennial Exhibition sparked the beginning, as many were passed out at that event.