Free Vintage Illustrations of Maids, Servants, and a Man Cleaning House

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Pearline Soap had one of early advertising's great carpet-bombing-style campaigns, with Pearline ads appearing in newspapers and on (gorgeous) advertising trade cards quite pertinaciously from 1877 to 1907. The company was also one of early advertising's great disaster stories: in 1907, they decided that Pearline was such a household name that they no longer needed to advertise. Within a few years after they dropped their advertising campaign, Pearline was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, their salvation coming only when they were bought out by Proctor and Gamble in 1914. 

The "pretty maids, all in a row" above are from an 1890 ad - their buckets originally spelled out "Pearline," but I've worked a little Photoshop magic to make them more suitable for arts and crafts. 

This domestic goddess from a turn-of-the-last-century Pearline ad appeared next to the reassuring text "Simple - any servant can use it." Because, you know, Pearline users were mostly living Upstairs Downton Abbey-like lives of ease and leisure then, right? 
Here she is in more line-drawing fashion:

How about a MAN cleaning house? We don't see that often in ads ("or in real life!" I sense some of you tacking on in your heads).

But it only looks like he's about to get to scrubbin' - the copy from this 1894 ad reads, "Why can't a man's wife use Pearline for cleaning house, and let him keep comfortable?" Well, why not, indeed? Wives can be SO inconsiderate sometimes!

Free vintage illustration of a woman's portrait head

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The illustration above was originally captioned "Animal Magnetism" (whaaaaat?) and purports to show the model in a "field" of "animal magnetic attraction." Okay, whatever, you crazy old 19th century you. 

I see this image turning into the base of a gorgeous necklace pendant, don't you?  

Free vintage illustration of a woman washing clothes

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This image of a woman fanning herself while washing clothes comes from an 1892 advertisement for Pearline soap. The first line of the ad reads "You can't keep cool while you're rubbing away over a tub of steaming clothes." Thank heavens for Maytag. 

Free vintage illustration of mother with unhappy baby

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This illustration of a young mother comforting her rather unhappy infant originally carried the subtitle "How to Treat Croup." Dear Old Mum looks heroically composed, all things considered.

Free vintage illustration of a young married couple reading by candlelight

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In this Victorian-era illustration, a young married couple reads by candlelight while a traveler passes outside their window. I haven't yet been able to locate the source information, but I would guess that this is an illustration from a novel.

Free vintage Illustration of Lady Bradshaigh

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For my first free illustration, I've chosen an engraving of Lady Bradshaigh (1705-1785). Isn't she lovely? Lady Bradshaigh, born Dorothy Bellingham, is famous for being the pen-pal and confidante of Samuel Richardson, the author of the first English bestseller, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded. Lady Bradshaigh lived a remarkable life, which you can read more about here: Ingilby History Page. The illustration comes from the introduction to the Complete Novels of Samuel Richardson, Volume 1, published in 1902. According to notes from the book, it was "engraved by Caroline Watson from an original portrait (1804)."