Last (Jay T.) Collection of Personal Care Prints and Ephemera, approximately 1832-approximately 1931, bulk 1860-1900

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Summary

Title:
Jay T. Last Collection of Personal Care Prints and Ephemera
Dates:
approximately 1832-approximately 1931, bulk 1860-1900
Creators:
Last, Jay T.
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.
Extent:
approximately 865 items
Language:
English.
Preferred citation:

[Item title, Call number]. Jay T. Last Collection of Personal Care Prints and Ephemera, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

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).

Biographical / historical:

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.

Acquisition information:
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 .
Arrangement:

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)

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Note:

Finding aid last updated on March 22, 2018.

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Charla DelaCuadra.
Date Prepared:
© 2018
Date Encoded:
Machine readable finding aid encoded by Charla DelaCuadra in January 2018 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Terms of access:

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.

Preferred citation:

[Item title, Call number]. Jay T. Last Collection of Personal Care Prints and Ephemera, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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