Accidents Happen (c1890s)

Sketches of misfortune in an insurance trade card

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Trade cards were like the Instagram of their time. This one featured numerous illustrations that depicted ways in which life could go wrong. From horse-drawn carriage collisions to falling bricks, this colorful card served an important purpose in an era when insurance was not yet a ubiquitous part of everyday life.

Verso

From verso - an explanation of how insurance worked …

Insurance simply distributes losses. The Company collects from all, that it may relieve some. You are as apt to be the one to be relieved as another. If vou do not meet with an accident you are simply taxed to relieve the necessities of some one who does, and may well be thankful that your suffering is confined to the pocket. You are much the gainer if you get nothing back; but, if you should be unfortunate, the insurance would be fully appreciated.

Clergymen, Lawyers, Doctors, Merchants, Tradesmen, Commercial Travelers, Clerks and Artisans, appear in fairly equal numbers on the list, and every year, as towns and cities become more crowded and rapid communication more general, their number necessarily increases.

As long as human carelessness exists we shall be constantly exposed to the risk of injury, and there is scarcely an individual who cannot refer, within the sphere of his own family or acquaintance, to some accident in which the indemnity offered by this Company would have been a blessing worth much more than its cost.

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Trade Card: Accident Insurance Fidelity and Casualty Co of New York.

Date: Circa 1890s (The Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York began providing fidelity and surety bonds in 1878.)

I generally only post items found in archives. But I couldn’t pass up this one I found on Etsy - and it’s for sale.