In the three decades before the Civil War, pictures of many kinds assumed essential functions and mediated all sorts of individual and collective experiences for a large segment of the population. In A Flood of Pictures, Michael Leja explores how the widespread circulation of pictures reshaped a culture accustomed to printed and spoken words.

After 1830, printers, entrepreneurs, and admen devised visual and textual strategies that would appeal to consumers, gain their trust, and solidify brand identity. Jennifer M. Black argues this visual language of trust—symbolized in the trademark—grew out of middle-class ideas and has come to define both American consumer culture and trademark law.