Consumer Culture: Premiums

The Consumer Culture exhibition at the Benton County Historical Society's Philomath  Museum  contains a number of different objects that companies included with their main product in order to attract buyers.  Included in the display are the little toys that came in Cracker Jack boxes and an “international” doll that came with purchase of gasoline. Another type of premium was the offer of trading cards, such as those featuring baseball players included with cigarettes or gum.  BCHS' collection also includes a set of cards featuring birds that were included in packages of baking soda.

The Church and Dwight Company began offering cards depicting birds in boxes of their Arm and Hammer Baking Soda beginning in 1887 or 1888. The first set included 60 different “Beautiful Birds” cards. These proved popular and the company introduced new sets over the next decades. These cards are from a 1922 set of “Useful Birds of America.”

On the back of the cards, the company prompted its product and gave a brief description of the bird.  

Most contain the slogan “For the Good of All, Do Not Destroy the Birds,” although some say “Obey the Game Laws—Keep Under the Limit.”

All the cards shown here have paintings of birds done by M. E. Eaton.  Mary Emily Eaton was born and had her art training in England.   Although she provided the paintings for many of the bird cards, she is best known as a botanical artist. Beginning in 1911, she was employed by the New York Botanical Garden, painting over 600 illustrations for their journal. She is also noted for her illustrations of cacti in a major reference work on the subject.  After her position at the botanical gardens was eliminated in 1933, she struggled to find work in the US and eventually returned to England.  She died there in 1961.

Some of the cards in other series featured paintings by Louis Agassiz Fuentes, one of the most noted American bird artists after John James Audubon.

Over all, the company offered 3,994 cards depicting birds, plus others showing animals or fish. 

By Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath, Oregon