It's #TradeCardTuesday and we're stuck on this advertisement for cement glue ...

Illustration advertising glue shows a silhouette of a family, with the father stuck to a chair.

It's #TradeCardTuesday and we're stuck on this advertisement for cement glue from Van Stan's Stratena Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The company was founded 1876, when the compound's inventor, the English glue merchant Frederick Van Stan, sold his rights to the name and manufacture to Philadelphia resident John A. Keenan.

Keenan would later file a lawsuit against Frederick Van Stan's son, Victor F. Van Stan. The younger Van Stan emigrated to Philadelphia in 1889, where he began working for Keenan in the Van Stan's Stratena Company business before establishing his own glue manufacturing business, marketed under the names "Victor F. Van Stan's Cementine" and "Van Stan's Improved Cement".

The result was a prolonged court case to determine Victor's right to use the Van Stan name, which ultimately ended in 1904 with a decision in Keenan's favor; Victor was disallowed from the "use [of] his own proper name irrespective of the question of fraudulent intent" in the manufacture of adhesive products.

This card is undated, but, given the card's warnings about fraudulent products, was likely was produced during the years in which Victor F. Van Stan and John A. Keenan fought for the rights to the name.

This item is part of Hagley Library's Fingerman ephemera collection (Accession 2009.213).  Assembled by collectors Arlene and Gerald Fingerman, the collection consists of mixed-format ephemera from various endeavors within American culture, primarily the manufacturing and selling of products or services.

This collection has not been digitized in its entirety, but you can view a selection of materials from the collection now in our Digital Archive - just click here!