Object of the Day: A Trade Card for the Union Sewing Machine Co.

This trade card advertises the “Union Sewing Machine Co.”  The image depicts two well-dressed young ladies in pursuit of butterflies.  The seated woman holds a lap desk so that she might write about their fun afternoon.

The cards reads: “Union Sewing Machines are the best,” and declares that one may “Sew Backward or Forward Without Stopping.”  Made in the late Nineteenth Century, this card demonstrates the trend of young ladies using the modern invention of the sewing machine to make her own fashionable clothes.