Ladies' Pocket Calendar by Clark Thread Company [1878]
Descriptive Object
Identifier:
OBJ.O.1979.38
Description
A pocket-sized trade card calendar for the year 1878, advertising 'Clark's Spool Cotton O.N.T.' The front features a limited-palette color print illustration of two yellow-haired, peach-skinned children wearing blue, peach, white and red clothing beside a green, white, and red plant and peach, red, green, and yellow toys (wheeled horse and carriage and doll). One apparently uses thread from a blue, yellow, and white spool of Clark's O.N.T. to pull the wheeled horse while the other apparently coos at a white kitten playing with the spool. The reverse, featuring the full 12-month calendar divided by days in columns and months in rows, is printed blue-on-white and centers another Clark's ad that says, "Be Sure To Use [Clark's O.N.T. Spool Cotton, Trademark] for Hand & Machine Sewing. Geo A. Clark, Sole Agent." Various sources cite O.N.T. as an initialism for Our New Thread, a promoted product line as indicated by the presence of O.N.T.-labeled antiques (e.g. other trade cards, display cases) dated to the 1870s-1880s in various online collections. Connection of this trade card to Old Town, ME unclear.