There was no such day as Black Friday in late 19th century Brooklyn, of course.
But the commercialization of the Christmas holidays was certainly in full swing, with businesses on Fulton Street—the city’s premier shopping drag at the time—coming up with homey images of Santa Claus and Christmas trees to sell their wares.
This card, from a grocery and tea dealer at 493 Fulton, shows as heartfelt a holiday scene as any ad you’ll see today: a well-dressed mother, a candlelit tree, a little girl watching from behind a curtain.
S. A. Byers Fine Boots and Shoes, at 527 Fulton, was trying to sell “elegant slippers for the holidays” by giving us a jolly Santa, crackling fire, stockings filled with gifts, and holly leaves.
These ads come from the Fulton Street Trade Card Collection, a database of old business cards made available by the Brooklyn Public Library.
Tags: Brooklyn businesses 19th century, Brooklyn ephemera, Brooklyn in the 19th century, Brooklyn Public Library, Fulton Street Brooklyn, Fulton Street shopping, old Brooklyn business ads
Ephemeral New York 
November 29, 2011 at 12:41 pm |
Hi! Great site, it is good to see how things kind of change and remain the same. The Santa Claus Outfit with the green jacket in the card image as an example, is a good illustration (no pun intended, really!), of the way Santa was imagined in the past. Somehow in this age, Santa only has a Red Jacket as part of his costume, but the beard and jolly image survive.
November 29, 2011 at 3:03 pm |
Thanks–you have a good eye for details! Now I’m curious if Santa wore a green jacket back then. I wonder how his suit became all red.
November 29, 2011 at 8:42 pm |
Coca Cola helped to create Santa
http://www.coca-colaconversations.com/my_weblog/2008/01/did-coke-create.html
http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/cokelore_santa.html
Ho Ho Ho!
November 29, 2011 at 8:45 pm |
Interesting, thanks Mick!
May 10, 2021 at 2:01 am |
[…] changed hands many times, and signs have gone up and down over the years as the street went from Gilded Age posh to middle class to more of a discount area through the […]