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Jay T. Last Collection of Personal Care Prints and Ephemera: Finding
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priJLC_PC
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Title: Jay T. Last Collection of Personal Care Prints and Ephemera
Dates (inclusive): approximately 1832-approximately 1931
Bulk dates: 1860-1900
Collection Number: priJLC_PC
Collector:
Last, Jay T.
Extent:
approximately 865 items
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Prints and Ephemera
Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: 626-405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: The Jay T. Last Collection of Personal Care Prints and Ephemera contains approximately 865 printed items related to grooming
and personal care in the United States from approximately 1832 to 1931,
with the bulk of the content dating from 1860 to 1900. Most items are lithographs, but engravings and woodcuts are also included.
The collection deals with products and services relating to grooming, cleansing, and preserving one’s hair,
scalp, skin, or teeth to promote individual hygiene or to beautify one’s appearance.
Language: English.
Note:
Finding aid last updated on March 22, 2018.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities.
The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the
researcher.
[Item title, Call number]. Jay T. Last Collection of Personal Care Prints and Ephemera, The Huntington Library, San Marino,
California.
This collection forms part of the Jay T. Last Collection of Graphic Arts and Social History, which was
donated to the Huntington Library by Jay T. Last in 2005 as a gift in progress. The bulk of the Personal Care prints and ephemera were transferred to the Library between 2010 and 2012.
The Jay T. Last Collection is an unparalleled archive of printed paper artifacts that documents American lithographic, social,
and business history. The collection began in the early 1970s when
physicist and Silicon Valley pioneer Jay Last moved to Southern California and started collecting citrus box labels he found
at local flea markets and rummage sales. As his collection grew,
Last realized that these labels conveyed important information about commercial printing, graphic design, and social history,
and he expanded his collection to include other forms
of American visual culture. Today this collection contains more than 200,000 lithographic prints, posters, and ephemera of
mostly nineteenth- and early twentieth- century American
origin and represents works by more than five hundred lithographic companies.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader
Services.
The Jay T. Last Collection of Personal Care Prints and Ephemera contains approximately 865 printed items related to grooming
and personal care in the United States from approximately 1832 to 1931,
with the bulk of the content dating from 1860 to 1900. Most items are lithographs, but engravings and woodcuts are also included.
The collection deals with products and services relating to grooming, cleansing, and preserving one’s hair,
scalp, skin, or teeth to promote individual hygiene or to beautify one’s appearance. Materials focus on consumer goods or
acts of assistance that do not require medical direction to purchase or use. Such products include cosmetics, hair oils, perfumes,
razors, shaving creams, shampoos, skin lotions, talcum powder, toothpaste, tooth powder, brushes, combs, hair pins, and wigs.
Such services include barbers, hairdressers, wigmakers, and styling salons. As graphic materials, the collection highlights
developing techniques and trends in printmaking while documenting the artists, engravers, lithographers, printers, and publishers
involved in the creative process.
Materials are arranged in two series: small-size items (11 x 14 inches or less) and large-size items (more than 11 x 14 inches).
Small-size items are described broadly at the series level; large-size items and select small-size items are
fully inventoried with printers, artists, and publishers indexed by name. The collection includes 14 large-size items comprised
mainly of advertising prints and leaflets. Small-size items number approximately 850 and contain a variety
of materials, including trade cards, stationery, calendars, leaflets, and printed billheads and letterheads (with and without
manuscript text).
Alternative Form of Materials Available
Visit the
Huntington Digital Library: Jay T. Last Collection
to view digitized items from this collection.
Related materials in the Huntington Library
- Huntington Library Californiana Ephemera: Medicine, Personal Care, Pseudo-science, Drugs
- Jay T. Last Collection of Household Prints and Ephemera
- Jay T. Last Collection of Medicine Prints and Ephemera
- Los Angeles County Medical Association Collection
The collection is arranged in the following two series:
- Series I. Personal Care Prints and Ephemera (small size)
- Series II. Personal Care Prints and Ephemera (large size)
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Billheads.
Business cards.
Chromolithographs.
Ephemera.
Ephemera -- United States -- 19th
century.
Ephemera -- United States -- 20th
century.
Engravings.
Handbills.
Intaglio prints.
Leaflets (printed works).
Letterheads.
Lithographs.
Price lists.
Printed ephemera.
Promotional materials.
Relief prints.
Stationery.
Trade cards.
Advertising -- Perfumes industry.
Advertising -- Toilet preparations.
Beauty, Personal -- Pictorial works.
Butterflies -- Pictorial works.
Cosmetics -- Pictorial works.
Flowers -- Pictorial works.
Hair -- Pictorial works.
Men -- Pictorial works.
Women -- Pictorial works.
Printer, Publisher, Artist Index
The following is a complete list of printers, publishers, and artists represented in the fully-cataloged items in this collection.
F. Heppenheimer & Co.
P.S. Duval & Son
Kellogg & Comstock
Dearborn, Nathaniel, 1786-1852
Donaldson Brothers (Firm)
Herline & Co.
Sarony, Major & Knapp Lith.
Traubel, M. H. (Morris H.), 1820-1897
Aiken, Mark M.
Reen, Charles