The Before and After Trade Card, by Ben Crane: A Monograph of the Ephemera Society of America, 1995.

"Buy this product and it will change your life!" How many times a day do we see or hear this message? It seems that all we have to do is buy the product and the good life will be ours. This is not new. Over a century ago, during the Victorian era, this same message was being delivered to the public. Then, however, one of the most common forms of advertising was a small, illustrated card that we now call an advertising trade card--or trade card, for short.

The subject of this book is trade cards that illustrate the "change of life" message. Called before and after trade cards in this book, they show a problem and how it was solved by using the advertised product.

Containing 232 advertising trade cards that depict both a problem and its solution, this 136-page volume also includes a bibliography and two indexes, one of advertised products, the other recording printers.

Out of print, but available from the author, Ben Crane, at his Web site www.tradecards.com.