While digging around the digital archives of
GenealogyBank.com for articles on cigarette cards, I came across an article that centered around the dead letter office
of the Post Office Department. The article describes what the dead letter office does with objectionable material. I found the last paragraph, describing the process of manufacturing cigarette cards, to be most interesting and I've transcribed it below.
The cigarette manufacturers entered into arrangements with
photographers by which the pictures were turned out on an enormous
scale. The photographers went into the market and purchased all the
photographs suitable for their purpose that they could get, including
portraits of actresses, dancers and event society women in ball
costume. Girls were even hired to pose. The photographs obtained were
mounted in sized matched on huge cards, 100 or more on each. Each card
was placed before the camera and reproduced on a smaller scale. From
the resulting negative whole sheets were turned off, the little
photographs being afterward cut apart and delivered to the cigarette
manufacturer. In this simple manner they could be reproduced by
millions.
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| The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) - November 30, 1895 |
15 years later the cigarette cards were still going strong.
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| The Palestine Daily Herald (Texas) - June 2, 1910 |
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