Arm and Hammer is actually not the issuer of these cards, that is just a brand name owned and operated by Church and Dwight, and it is just one of their many products.
They started small, as two men making baking soda in their house, and as one of the men was more willing to have his name associated with the product, it was sold as a product of John Dwight and Company., starting in 1846.
This went on for forty years, until the other man, Austin Church, retired. His sons were not really interested in the business, but they did want his name to be remembered so they set up in business as Church and Co. This was in direct competition to Dwight`s and using the same recipe. This led, not too long after, to a merger being suggested, and the terms of that was that John Dwight & Company were renamed, to Church and Dwight. It seems to me that this was a rather roundabout way of getting the desired result, but it worked.
The firm went along with producing just baking and washing soda for many years, and also issued many sets of beautiful large sized trade cards. Many of these showed birds, and there is an excellent site online about the tenth series And Joe Lill runs a more general site In America, as here, some collectors call them “Arm and Hammer cards” and others “Church and Dwight”. If you collect them, its probably a good idea to add both to your internet checking list
The rapid rise in the company`s fortunes is relatively recent, and it all came from a simple advertisement showing that a box of baking soda, kept in the fridge and replaced on a regular basis, would control any smells that were not supposed to come from a fridge. This came at the start of the 1970s, and for some reason the baking soda seems to have become associated with all forms of cleanliness for body and home, so they now make everything from toothpaste and deodorant to cat litter. And a lot of American consumer will not buy a cleaning product which does not have baking soda listed in the ingredients.