Collection of Soapine advertising trade cards

Kendall Manufacturing Company was established in 1827 in Providence, Rhode Island by Henry Lewis Kendall (1805-1883) and specialized in manufacturing soap. Their main product was the household product Soapine. In 1929, the company relocated to Syracuse, New York and went out of business in the 1950s. The Soapine advertising design became nationally recognized with the popular mass market advertising campaign of trade cards by Kendall Manufacturing Company from 1878-1905.

Kendall Manufacturing Company worked with artists and lithography printers to develop a range of custom trade card designs for Soapine. Additionally, they used a large number of stock images for Soapine promotion. The Soapine cards represent the evolution of the advertising trade card medium and include gilt trade cards, die cuts and oversized chromolithography, and stock imagery. Additionally, the collection represents the development of branding within the newly developing advertising industry.

A notable selection of the custom Soapine cards were designed by feminist, author and social reformer Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935). Gilman created the illustrations for commercial clients as a means of supporting herself while attending the Rhode Island School of Design. She formed a business with her cousin Robert Brown named “Perkins & Co Designers” and produced trade card designs for Soapine and several other brands. Her cards for Soapine were designed in the early 1880s and included some of Soapine’s most memorable custom designs.