Abstract

KEVILL-DAVIES, Harriette. Look and see: Optical technology and disciplinary mechanisms in Topps Trading Cards, 1948-1952. IT [online]. 2020, n.34, pp.1-26. ISSN 2617-3255.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2617-3255/2020/n34a21.

In this article I examine trading cards produced by Topps Chewing Gum, Inc. in the United States in the decade following World War II. I focus on how these cards functioned as mechanisms of discipline, through the practices associated with collecting, as well as through their content and use. Cards reflected contemporary trends in education and behavioural science. In addition, they utilised what I term optical technology to entice children to buy. This came in the form of rudimentary optical tricks that emulated scientific and technological developments associated with wartime. I argue that in doing so, these cards brought children into the nascent military-technological complex, and provided a way to view the world in hierarchical terms through optical science.

Keywords : Trading cards; children; science; technology; anthropology; Cold War.

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