Original Mounted Cigarette Cards

Because cigarette manufacturers targeted men with their advertising, the illustrations on the insert cards featured what were considered male-centric interests at the time: sports, the military, the natural world, and depictions of women. Many different series, usually of 25 or 50 cards on a specific subject, were developed to promote consumer loyalty by encouraging the purchase of the same brand until all cards in a particular series had been collected. One series of 50 cards entitled ‘The World’s Champions,’ produced in 1888 by Allen and Ginter, contained images of 10 popular baseball players of the day, including Charles Comiskey and “Cap” Anson. They are reputed to be the earliest “baseball cards” ever distributed.

Angling was a popular pastime in late nineteenth century and representation of the sport on tobacco insert cards was a logical outcome. The first set of 50 cards, entitled ‘Fish from American Waters,’ was produced by Allen and Ginter in 1889. The cards display a great variety of North American fish in exquisite detail and with great accuracy. Not to be outdone, W. Duke & Sons, led by its entrepreneurial boss Buck Duke, produced its own series of 50 cards called ‘Fishers and Fish,’ which also used high grade lithography to depict common American fish. Intense competition among numerous American cigarette manufacturers in the late 1880s led to the production of hundreds of different series of cards, many of which have remained quite collectible to this day. A second surge in the production of cigarette cards occurred after the turn of the century, and the first 20th century fishing-related insert cards were created by several
companies between 1907 and 1910. The 50 original Allen and Ginter cards were reproduced, and 50 more cards were added soon thereafter by the Sweet Caporal and Piedmont Tobacco Companies.

Donated by AMFF Trustee Emeritus, Jim Heckman