Internet Archive Artifact - 0001

Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

Title: Adam Watters, importer of, & wholesale & retail dealer

From:  microfiche, originally from 1800s.

What is it?

This is an advertisement for Adam Watters, an importer, wholesale,  retail dealer in Upper Town, Quebec City. The brochure identifies a range of imported goods, including meats, soups, fish, and hams, and notes relationships with  suppliers from Portland, Boston, and Guelph. This type of advertisement was typical in 19th-century newspapers, serving both as promotion and public notice of commercial credibility.

Thoughts

There's two layers of interesting elements to this artifact.  The first is that it is microfiche that has been then added to the archive.  This makes me wonder how much of the archive is microfiche which is something I hadn't considered before.  Also, we know this because the first few pages are essentially meta-data related to the microfiche, which also tells us it is from Quebec, Canada with its use of both English and French.  The work was done by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions which is now Canadiana.ca, a historical organization interested in preserving and making Canadian history accessible.  

Then, there's the advertisement itself.  What structure me first--and such things usually don't--is the number of fonts (at least 5 I think).  I just find that curious as it is layered well enough to grab attention and organize information.  It's interesting to consider that level of graphic design was deployed at the time.  The variety of products and distinctions within products also catches my attention.  Again, maybe because I live in the world where grocery stores are exercises in decision fatigue, it's still interesting to see that even Mustard has a number of choices.  And that sauce list--just makes me hungry, if not curious (King of Oude Sauce?). They even have 8 versions of soap to offer.  

About This Series: I started this because I love the random oddities of the Internet Archive. Read more about how and why I did this here. To view all the posts in the collection, select this link. You can also download this program from my GitHub page.

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