Monday, November 9, 2020

School lesson for the kitties

This Victorian trade card features some tortoiseshell kittens attempting to learn geography from an adult black cat, while two other kittens wait their turn. It's an interesting map. It almost looks like it has a south-up orientation, but I'm clearly reading too much into it; it's obviously just some colored blotches in the vague resemblance of a map. Also, an illustration of cats looking at a map is hardly the place to comment on cultural and socioeconomic bias as normalized through geography.

As you can see, no publisher is listed on the front of the 4⅜-inch-wide card, and the reverse side is blank. But based on some other evidence I found online, it's likely this is from a series that was issued in the 1880s or 1890s by Dieter's Crown Baking Powder. According to the below 1980 advertisement from the  Xenia (Ohio) Daily Gazette, Dieter's Crown Baking Powder was "recommended by the highest medical and chemical authorities, who testify to its absolutely purity, wholesomeness and wonderful strength."

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