To celebrate the season, we’re highlighting a historical advertisement for Star Toboggans on our home page this month. The colorful sledding scene is part of the Library’s Popular Graphic Arts Collection, which contains more than 15,000 historical prints published between 1700 and 1900.
The prints depict images from everyday life, historical events, celebrities, popular destinations and more. Some, like the Star Toboggans piece, advertise products—in this case bobsleds.
American printmakers created most of the prints in the collection—the well-known printmaker Currier & Ives is well represented, for example. But publishers from many other countries are included as well.
The Library acquired the Star Toboggan ad in 1887, when the Phoenix Lithographic Company of Chicago deposited the art with a registration submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office. Many of the prints in the collection were acquired in this way.
For more scenes of the season, check out our Winter Wonderland Pinterest board!