In
the late Nineteenth Century, Singer Sewing Machines launched an ad campaign
featuring images of American song birds.
Get it? Singers.
During
this period, domestic sewing machine technology had advanced so much as to make
personal sewing machines affordable for most middle class households. There were many machines on the market and
Singer wanted something to help them stand out.
This attractive series of ads translated well into periodicals and
posters and also made for very handsome and collectible trade cards.
Here’s
one of them.
The
front of the card depicts an oriole perched on a twig. An inset (natural size) of the bird’s egg is
below the little flyer. The
illustrations were created by J.L. Ridgway.
This is number 3 of 5.
Above
the seal of the Singer Manufacturing Co., we see the words, in pale blue:
The
American Singer Series
At
the bottom, it reads:
Orchard
Oriole
Copyright
1898, BY THE SINGER MFG. CO., N.Y.
The
reverse of the card reads, with a wee picture of the machine being sold:
ORCHARD
ORIOLE
AN
EXCEEDINGLY active, sprightly and restless bird (Nuttall) is the Orchard
Oriole, a near relative of the Baltimore Oriole. Although not so gaily dressed, he far
surpasses his cousin as a songster, his tone being far richer and his song more
finished.
His small branch of the family is
scattered, after the first of May, through the Eastern United States from the
Gulf of Mexico to Massachusetts.
Although protected by his less noticeable coloring, he shuns the open
fields and highways, preferring the orchards, where the nest of freshly dried
grasses, carefully woven, is like that of the cousin in orange and black, hung
from a branch.
When people are returning from seaside and
country places, the Orchard Orioles are flying toward their Winter quarters in
Central America to remain until the following May.
THE
SINGER
“20”
A
Practical Machine
For
either Little Girls
Or
Grown-ups
-------
Price
only $3.00
-------
Sold only at Singer Shops
or by Singer Salesmen. 
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