Allen & Ginter was an American tobacco company that produced cigarettes and other tobacco products in the late 19th century. While they are best known for their pioneering baseball card sets issued from 1886-1887, Allen & Ginter also produced a series of unique and collectible non-sports card sets inserted in their cigarette packs and other tobacco products between 1885-1889. These early trading cards featured portraits of famous and notable individuals from various fields such as arts, sciences, exploration and industry.
Allen & Ginter saw trading cards as a novel way of advertising their products and enticing consumers. Their innovative card inserts helped popularize the concept of including premiums and prizes inside cigarette packs. While baseball cards were their most famous and valuable series, Allen & Ginter’s non-sports cards hold historical and cultural significance as some of the earliest mass-produced trading cards in America. They provide a fascinating glimpse into the notable figures and subjects that captured public interest in the Gilded Age.
One of the earliest and most elaborate Allen & Ginter card sets was their 1885 “Portraits of American Indians” series. This set featured 54 lithographed cards showing Native Americans from different tribes, many in full headdress and traditional attire. The cards aimed to depict the various indigenous peoples of North America in an ethnographic style. While produced during a time of westward expansion and declining Native American populations, the cards represented one of the earliest mainstream exposures of Native American culture to the American public. Many of the individuals depicted in the set such as Chiefs Joseph, Rain-in-the-Face and Red Cloud became iconic figures in the history of American Indian relations.
In 1886, Allen & Ginter issued their “Great Americans” series featuring 50 cards profiling prominent historical figures from the early foundations of America. Portraits included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison and other Founding Fathers. The series also featured likenesses of authors, inventors, soldiers and statesmen who helped shape the young American nation such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Samuel Morse, Ulysses S. Grant and John Marshall. The cards aimed to instill patriotism and educate the public about individuals integral to American history and identity. Many of the portraits were based on period paintings and engravings to authentically capture the likenesses of these notable figures.
Another fascinating series released in 1886 was Allen & Ginter’s “Views of Great Britain” cards. This set included 50 lithographic cards depicting various landmarks, structures, monuments and scenes from across England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Locations featured included Windsor Castle, Edinburgh Castle, the Giant’s Causeway, the Cliffs of Moher and other iconic sites that represented British culture, history and natural beauty. The cards provided American consumers a pictorial tour of the British Isles during a period of trans-Atlantic cultural exchange and tourism between the two English-speaking nations. They helped foster an interest in British places and architecture among the American public.
In 1887, Allen & Ginter released three additional non-sports card sets including “Portraits of Beautiful Women”, “Views of American Progress” and “Rough Riders, Indian Fighters and Frontier Scouts”. The “Portraits of Beautiful Women” series featured 50 lithographed cards depicting famous actresses and other notable women from the worlds of art, literature and society such as Lillie Langtry, Sarah Bernhardt and Queen Victoria. Meanwhile, the “Views of American Progress” set highlighted 50 scenes of industrialization, transportation and infrastructure projects through lithographed images of factories, railroads, bridges and other symbols of America’s rapid modernization in the late 19th century. Lastly, the “Rough Riders, Indian Fighters and Frontier Scouts” series portrayed 50 lithographed portraits of American frontiersmen, explorers, military figures and adventurers who helped shape the western expansion of the United States through their exploits and encounters with Native Americans.
In addition to their elaborate card sets, Allen & Ginter also produced smaller series profiling notable individuals in fields like art, exploration, science and industry. Examples include their 1886 “Eminent Painters and Sculptors” series featuring 12 lithographed cards of artists like Raphael, Michelangelo and Rembrandt. They also issued an 1886 “Explorers and Travelers” set with 12 cards depicting figures such as Amerigo Vespucci, Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan. An 1886 “Men of Science” set highlighted 12 portraits of inventors, physicians and thinkers like Benjamin Franklin, Louis Pasteur and Michael Faraday.
While production of Allen & Ginter cards ceased after 1889 when the company was acquired by British American Tobacco, their innovative non-sports card sets from the 1880s had a profound and lasting impact. They helped establish trading cards as an integral part of the tobacco product experience and a novel form of advertising. Allen & Ginter’s ornate cards also did much to familiarize the American public with notable individuals from history, arts, sciences and other fields while fostering interests in other cultures through their pictorial series. Even over 130 years later, their unique cards remain a fascinating primary source of visual information on notable figures and subjects from the Gilded Age era. For scholars and collectors alike, Allen & Ginter’s pioneering non-baseball cards continue to provide a compelling window into American popular culture and interests during the late 19th century.
