Brown & Bigelow Calendars - 1915

Brown & Bigelow, Inc. of Saint Paul, Minnesota used this postcard in 1915 to acknowledge an order for calendars. The illustration on the postcard is ©1913 and is titled "A Clean Double." The artist's initials are unclear, but the last name appears to be Collins.

The back of the postcard has an advertising message about the company's service department. It offered help with "The Right Distribution of Calendars" and a booklet of that name.

That booklet about distribution was ©1911 and was by E. N. Ferdon, advertising manager of Brown & Bigelow. Ferdon also wrote a chapter in the book Library of Advertising titled "What is the Value of Calendar Advertising." That book has been digitized and can be read online here. The advantages of calendar advertising given then are still applicable today, even with all the more modern forms of advertising. An excerpt:

Think of it: through the use of the right calendar the advertiser may command space right in the home or in the office of prospect or customer — space that couldn't be bought at any price, but that is given away in exchange for a calendar! … And that calendar is a persistent, continuous advertiser. It is not passed once or twice a day, like a street sign; nor seen for a minute and probably forgotten, like so many of even the best white space advertisements ; it is on the job every minute, shouting its message. If suggestion has any place at all in advertising, then surely an advertising calendar suggests.

Brown & Bigelow's history goes back to 1896. The company has been through name changes and acquisitions, but is still in existence and has a website here.