1880
IT HAPPENED IN…1880
The Chinese Exclusion Treaty granted power to
“regulate, limit or suspend” the entry of Chinese laborers.
550,000 English and 440,000 Irish immigrants arrived to build
new lives. The Census
reported the U.S. population at 50,155,783.
Illiteracy in America was estimated at 17% of the
population.
There were about 50,000 telephone subscribers in
the U.S.
George Eastman of Rochester, New York patented a
successful roll film for cameras.
The Singer Company sold 539,000 sewing machines
for home use.
Ice packed in sawdust was exported to tropical
and southern ports below decks.
Part would melt, but at the destinations the product was very
valuable, selling for as much as $56 per ton.
James A. Garfield was elected President of the
U.S.
The Women’s National Christian Temperance Union
and the Prohibition Party forced a bill through the Kansas
legislature outlawing the sale and consumption of alcohol.
James Vernor began making Vernor’s Ginger Ale in
Detroit, Michigan.
This large advertisement was printed on onion-skin
type paper. The “healthy”
and “strengthening” marketing theme is further emphasized by the various
images. The drunkard on his
hands and knees at the bottom right not only has a monkey on his back,
he is holding a bottle of rum with a snake coming out of the bottle’s
mouth. The text doesn’t
specifically mention temperance, but that is definitely the message the
images convey.
(Figure 1880-01, Hires'
Improved Root Beer - Healthy & Strengthening)
The illustrated Hires’ Improved Root Beer Package in
this newspaper advertisement is the same image used for the series of
Hires trade cards published in 1879.
(Figure
1880-02, The
Valley Republican, Kinsley, Kansas, July 3, 1880)
Charles E. Hires Company sales for 1880 were listed as
5,804 bottles.