Object of the Day: A Trade Card for Industrial Insurance

This image of a well-dressed lady with her gloves and riding crop shows the sense of growing female independence which was on the rise at the end of the Nineteenth Century.  She’s outfitted quite beautifully in a fashionable under-dress of puce and a swagged bustle in the hot pink color which dominated fashion of the era as chemical dyes became more prominent.  She wears a matching hat, and is posed at the top of a garden staircase.

The card, I think, was probably a stock image which was selected from a catalog for use in advertising Industrial Insurance.

The text on the front of the card reads:

INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE.

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York.

Branch Office

S. Salina Street,

SYRACUSE, N.Y.    (OVER)

The reverse chronicles the various types of insurance offered by Metropolitan Life Insurance along with listing the names of the Officers and Directors of the Company.

To be honest, the print is so small and the subject matter so dry, that my eyes would fall out if I tried to type it out for you in the manner in which I usually do.  So, we’ll just look at the back of the card.