Cigarette Cards from the "Maureen Jameson Tobacco Education Collection": Home
Overview
This exhibition showcases examples of British collectible cigarette cards—printed and circulated during the first half of the twentieth century—from the “Maureen Jameson Tobacco Education Collection.” Jameson, an Associate Professor Emerita in the University at Buffalo’s Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, used this collection for tobacco education courses as well as her own research on depictions of smoking in French and Francophone contexts. The cards featured here celebrate British culture and history, commemorating a range of illustrious political, film, and literary figures. In this way, the cards represent an effort to package British culture along with the sale of tobacco products.
Cigarette Cards: Origins & Variety
Cigarette cards date back to the final few decades of the 19th century when American cigarette manufacturers began producing and adding small, illustrated cards into their packages. [1] Following the popularity of these cards in the United States, the trend spread to Britain, Ireland and other countries, [2] including Holland, Italy, and Thailand. [3] The cards presented in this exhibit were printed in Britain, specifically. Very early cards featured only an attractive illustration, but right before the turn of the century (1896, according to one commentator) [4] contextual content was printed on the cards’ backside. [5] This content described the illustration, the number of the card and the name of the set to which it belonged, and the identity of the tobacco company that issued the card. The purpose of these cards was twofold. First, the cards, often belonging to larger sets, promoted “brand loyalty” [6] among consumers (those with a penchant for collecting would be more inclined to purchase a brand of cigarettes with the hope of acquiring other cards to make a complete set). As one British writer observed in 1926: “The card in the packet had begun to serve much the same commercial purpose as the serial story in the magazine.” [7] Second, the cards provided material support for the cigarette packaging, and were called “stiffeners.” [8]
“The years 1900–17,” one writer comments, “have been described as ‘The Golden Age’ of the cigarette card.” [9] Just under two-thousand different series are estimated to have been printed then, ranging in different themes and subject matter. [10] While sets ranged widely in size, Germany boasted some of the largest series, which one collector in the late 1930s attributed to “customary Teutonic thoroughness.” [11] The cards’ advertising methods are reflected in their broad thematic content, which would have appealed to both men and women smokers, as well as consumers from different social classes. Indeed, there were cards that celebrated major characters from the novels of Charles Dickens (1812–1870) and William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863), as well as images that depicted actors and those of infamous pirates. As one collector notes, “[t]he subjects were as vast as anyone’s imagination: lighthouses, whaling, movie stars, motorcars, flags, poultry, art treasures, roses, modern dance steps, engineering wonders, etc.” [12] Various themes appealed to a consumer base with different cultural tastes.
An Adolescent Hobby
(Credit: The Robert L. Brown History of Medicine Collection)
In All About Cigarette Cards, British enthusiast Alfred J. Cruse provides a brief historical overview of card production and their wide variety of content. That he describes card collecting—known as “cartophily” [13]—nostalgically is understandable since the book was published in 1945, roughly five years after cigarette card production ceased due to World War II. [14] “They may become plentiful again,” he writes hopefully, “as they were when your father was a boy. No doubt he remembers how he treasured Allied Army Leaders, Recruiting Posters, Regimental Banners, Mining or How to Make a Wireless Set, among many others. While for Grandfather they will bring back memories of how he perhaps collected with patriotic fervor With the Flag to Pretoria, Boer War Leaders, The Heroes of the Transvaal War, or Wills’s Transvaal series.” [15] The illustration on the book’s inner cover here gives a sense that card collecting was an exciting hobby that brought together family. That collecting appealed to children, too, has been commented upon by tobacco experts: “Schoolchildren became avid traders of cards and would wait outside tobacconists—or appear almost anywhere to ask adults for cigarette cards.” [16]
(Credit: Image obtained through Interlibrary Loan from the Vancouver Public Library, British Columbia, Canada)
A writer for The Royal Magazine asked readers jokingly in 1915, “What cigarette smoker is there who has not been accosted in the street with the urgent request, ‘Cigarette pictures, Guv’nor?’ made by a more or less grubby-faced small boy?” [17] Notably, boys’ magazines played a role in promoting card collection as a hobby. In a 1937 issue of the Boy’s Own Paper, the journalist inquires, “What Are Cigarette Cards?”, providing a short history of the hobby and generating interest by comparing it to stamp collecting. [18]
(Credit: Image obtained through Interlibrary Loan from the Vancouver Public Library, British Columbia, Canada)
A different issue of the Boy’s Own Paper, published in 1938, featured an article titled, “Improving Your Cigarette Card Album,” with an accompanying diagram and instructions for mounting cards for display. Youngsters would have appreciated the tutorial concerning how “[a]n ordinary album can be prepared to show both card 'faces' and backs.” [43] Having a view of both sides of the cards was important because, according to another historian, “Many children collected cards just for the pictures and play opportunities but others took pleasure in the descriptions that accompanied them which covered a wide range of themes, including nature, history and geography. They were a form of informal learning, ‘mini-encyclopedias’ for young minds which thirsted for knowledge yet were often frustrated by schooling.” [44] Acquisition and trading activities aside, young collectors did relish the cards' information.
(Credit: “Swopping Cards”, provided by Kevan Bundell)
Of course, as historians recognize, this was not accidental: tobacco companies attracted the young through the guise of recreation. One writes, for instance, “Cigarette cards were integral to playground activities such as collecting and trading and served as a form of currency, especially among boys, whom producers deliberately targeted in popular series about sporting heroes and military themes.” [19] Another series that would have attracted boys was “Pirates & Highway Men.” Printed in 1925, this set features the daring exploits of famous criminals in action, further demonstrating how certain themes resonated with a younger demographic. The photograph here depicts British schoolchildren eagerly discussing and exchanging cards.
Cigarette Cards: Origins & Variety (cont.)
Cigarette cards enjoyed popularity until World War I. At first, tobacco companies turned out military sets but soon the dearth of paper posed manufacturing limitations; cards hit the market again in the early 1920s. [23] If the early decades of the century marked the rapid rise in the production of and public zeal for cigarette cards, the 1930s was an era of serious collecting: “The 1930s,” observes one enthusiast, “saw the emergence of cigarette card clubs and even businesses that catered to the desires of collectors.” [24] Yet card manufacturing declined rapidly in the early 1940s during World War II since, once again, the conservation of materials was necessary. [25] To the disappointment of amused smokers and collectors alike, cigarette cards were never produced again. [26] One current-day physician writes, “The heyday of tobacco-sponsored trading cards ended after World War II, as chewing gum manufacturers entered the field and cigarette advertisers turned to television.” [27]
In an anonymously authored column in a 1953 issue of the British magazine Country Life, one collector bemoaned the demise of the hobby: “It is sad to think that a generation is growing up that knows nothing of the pleasures of collecting cigarette cards. . . . With what transports of childish delight used the appearance of each new series to be received!” [28] For this writer, however, “there was more in cigarette cards than the mere pleasure of collecting them. As vehicles of education they were the forerunners of the poster and the film. They provided information on a remarkable number of subjects. . . . Champions of television claim that it will redress the balance. Perhaps it will, but it can never give the satisfaction of personal effort and possession that came from collecting cigarette cards.” [29]
Cigarette Cards: An Art Form
According to one British collector writing in the mid-1920s, the design and printing of cards was meticulous business, “Few realise the amount of skill, care, and expenditure that go to the preparation of the best series. Photographs are used only in cases where a direct drawing cannot be made. Every statement, name, and date on the back of the card is checked and counter-checked, an excellent reference library being supplemented by the services of experts.” [30] Companies also needed staff to research and develop content for the cards: “By the 1920s the tobacco firms—many of whom were printers—employed notable artists, writers and editors to generate a steady flow of informative miniatures and ‘cigarette-knowledge’ had a reputation for accuracy.” [31] Intellectual and artistic powers aside, the materials required were also considerable: one set, for example, could require forty tons of paper [32] and up to a few years to finish. [33]
Mardon, Son & Hall (based in Bristol, England) provided British tobacco companies with printing power required to produce countless cigarette cards and other materials. According to the Bristol Archives, Mardon, Son & Hall partnered with W.D. & H.O. Wills, a tobacco company whose name appears on a few sets of cards here at the Robert L. Brown History of Medicine Collection. [37] This collaboration required increasing the printer’s facilities and personnel resources—before the outbreak of World War II, the printer had over five-thousand employees and operated multiple production facilities. [38] Although the printer’s name does not feature on the cards’ reverse side, Mardon, Son & Hall’s reputation was well established: “They were one of the first firms to utilize the inserted stiffening card placed in cigarette packets to create the immensely successful cigarette card and soon, Mardon’s indispensability to the British tobacco trade saw them become part of the newly-formed Imperial Tobacco Group in 1902.” [39]
Additional Reading / Resources
Chen, Chaonan, and Yiyou Feng. Old Advertisements and Popular Culture: Posters, Calendars, and Cigarettes, 1900–1950. 1st ed. San Francisco: Long River Press, 2004.
Goodman, Joyce, and Martin, Jane. Gender, Colonialism and Education: An International Perspective. Oxford: Taylor & Francis Group, 2005.
Zieger, Susan. “Tobacco Papers, Holmes’s Pipe, Cigarette Cards, and Information Addiction.” In The Mediated Mind: Affect, Ephemera, and Consumerism in the Nineteenth Century, 1st ed., 54–86. Fordham University Press, 2018.
Codling, Rosamunde. “Player’s Antarctic Cigarette Cards and the Involvement of ‘Teddy’ Evans.” Polar Record 47, no. 2 (2011): 177–81.
Gao, Jie. “Refining Modern Beauties: The Evolving Depiction of Chinese Women in Cigarette Cards, 1900–37.” East Asian Journal of Popular Culture 4, no. 2 (2018): 237–54.
Giles, Geoffrey J. “Popular Education and New Media: The Cigarette Card in Germany.” Paedagogica Historica 36, no. 1 (2000): 449–69.
American Museum of Fly Fishing: “Smoke Signals: Cigarette Cards from the 19th and 20th Centuries”
New York Public Library Digital Collections: “Cigarette Cards”
North Lanarkshire Council Museums Collections: “Cigarette Cards: Addicting the Masses”
The Passions of Youth, Histories and Heritage of Childhood and Youth in Manchester and Salford: “Children and Hobbies in 1930s Britain: Cigarette Cards”
Acknowledgements & Citations
Special thanks to Maureen Jameson, PhD, for donating the materials featured in this exhibit to the R. L. Brown History of Medicine Collection. The reproduction of the Boy’s Own Paper cover is courtesy of the Vancouver Public Library (British Columbia, Canada; image obtained through Interlibrary Loan), and the photograph, “Swopping Cards,” was sourced from Kevan Bundell. We also appreciate the Bristol Archives staff for providing helpful reference support to address our questions about cigarette card printing facilities and related production history.
Citations
[1] Blum, Alan. 1995. “Cigarette Cards—Irony in Propaganda.” Tobacco Control 4 (2): 117.
[2] Gindling, Dan. 1993. “Cigarette Cards.” Bicycling 34 (4): 1.
[3] Harmer, E. W. 1937. “Cigarette Cards: What Are They?” The Boy’s Own Paper 59: 472.
[4] Blank, Eugene W. 1937. “Cigarette Cards and Chemistry.” Journal of Chemical Education 14 (8): 394.
[5] Powell, Darryl. 2002. “Mines & Geology on Advertising Cards.” Rocks & Minerals 77 (5): 340.
[6] Blum, “Cigarette Cards—Irony in Propaganda”: 117.
[7] Pain, Barry. 1926. “Cigarette-Card History,” Chambers’s Journal 16 (815): 497.
[8] Blum, “Cigarette Cards—Irony in Propaganda”: 117.
[9] Powell, “Mines & Geology on Advertising Cards”: 340.
[10] Powell, “Mines & Geology on Advertising Cards”: 340.
[11] Blank, “Cigarette Cards and Chemistry”: 395.
[12] Gindling, “Cigarette Cards”: 1.
[13] Gindling, “Cigarette Cards”: 1.
[14] Cruse, Alfred J. All About Cigarette Cards. London: Perry Colour Books, Ltd., 1945: 1.
[15] Cruse, All About Cigarette Cards: 1.
[16] Blum, “Cigarette Cards—Irony in Propaganda”: 117.
[17] Stevens, C. L. McCluer. 1915. “Cigarette Pictures, Guv’nor?” The Royal Magazine 34: 189.
[18] Harmer, “Cigarette Cards: What Are They?”: 472.
[19] Melanie Tebbutt, “Children and Hobbies in 1930s Britain: Cigarette Cards,” The Passions of Youth: Histories and Heritage of Childhood and Youth in Manchester and Salford, https://passionsofyouth.org/latest-news-updates/hobbies-and-passions/. Accessed July 9, 2024.
[20] Parton, James. Does it Pay to Smoke? London: W. Tegg, 1872: 18.
[21] Dickens quoted in Frankenburg, Frances Rachel, Frankenburg, Frances R. Brain-Robbers: How Alcohol, Cocaine, Nicotine, and Opiates Have Changed Human History. Norway: ABC-CLIO, 2014: 141.
[22] Gifford, Denis (ed.). The British Film Catalogue: The Fiction Film. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2018.
[23] Powell, “Mines & Geology on Advertising Cards”: 340; and Cruse, All About Cigarette Cards: 5.
[24] Powell, “Mines & Geology on Advertising Cards”: 340.
[25] Powell, “Mines & Geology on Advertising Cards”: 340.
[26] Powell, “Mines & Geology on Advertising Cards”: 340.
[27] Blum, “Cigarette Cards—Irony in Propaganda”: 117.
[28] Anon. 1953. “Cartophilist’s Lament.” Country Life 113 (1922): 140.
[29] Anon, “Cartophilist’s Lament”: 140.
[30] Pain, “Cigarette-Card History”: 499.
[31] Archer, Caroline. “Print’s Past: Cigarette Cards.” Print Week, 22 Apr. 2004, 62. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A115690405/ITOF?u=sunybuff_main&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e4e51502. Accessed 2 July 2024.
[32] Powell, “Mines & Geology on Advertising Cards”: 340.
[33] Pain, “Cigarette-Card History”: 499.
[34] Mark Bostridge, Florence Nightingale: The Making of an Icon. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008: 361.
[35] Mac Marshall, Drinking Smoke: The Tobacco Syndemic in Oceania. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2013: 85.
[36] Marshall, Drinking Smoke: The Tobacco Syndemic in Oceania: 85.
[37] Bristol Archives, “Records of Mardon, Son and Hall, printing and packaging,” Bristol Archives Catalog, https://archives.bristol.gov.uk/records/40174, accessed July 18, 2024. Special thanks to the Bristol Archives staff who provided this historical context and reference support.
[38] Bristol Archives, “Records of Mardon, Son and Hall, printing and packaging,” Bristol Archives Catalog, https://archives.bristol.gov.uk/records/40174, accessed July 18, 2024.
[39] Bristol Archives, “Records of Mardon, Son and Hall, printing and packaging,” Bristol Archives Catalog, https://archives.bristol.gov.uk/records/40174, accessed July 18, 2024.
[40] Anon, “I Was a Spy, (1933).” British Film Institute, https://web.archive.org/web/20090113210917/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/38077, accessed June 11, 2024.
[41] Slide, Anthony. Fifty Classic British Films, 1932–1982: A Pictorial Record. United Kingdom: Dover Publications, 1985: 7.
[42] Thackeray quoted in Dr. Arthur Selwyn Brown (1926) “The Great Popularity and Steady Progress Made by the Cigarette.” Tobacco: A Weekly Trade Review 82 (1): 7–8. See William Makepeace Thackeray, The Confessions of Fitz-Booddle; and Some Passages in the Life of Major Gahagan. New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1852: 13–14.
[43] Robinson, H. A. 1938. “Improving Your Cigarette Card Album.” The Boy’s Own Paper 61: 108.
[44] Melanie Tebbutt, “Children and Hobbies in 1930s Britain: Cigarette Cards,” The Passions of Youth: Histories and Heritage of Childhood and Youth in Manchester and Salford, https://passionsofyouth.org/latest-news-updates/hobbies-and-passions/. Accessed August 8, 2024.
Packaging and Appearance
Cards were inserted in cigarette packs, similar to the one photographed here. Consumers would discover the card upon opening the pack.
“From Plantation to Smoker” (1926)
Printed in 1926, the “From Plantation to Smoker” set depicts individual phases of tobacco production beginning with cultivation, harvesting, and curing, to the later stages of cigarette manufacturing operations.
Giving a panoramic view of the many facets of tobacco agriculture, these cards likely intrigued collectors by providing information about a large and complex industry. Beautifully colored, each scene illustrates white and Black laborers at work in both field and factory; men are typically featured in the agricultural scenes, whereas young women appear seated in factory roles.
"Characters from Dickens" (1923)
Cards from this set commemorate many of the most memorable characters from the novels of British writer, Charles Dickens. Featured here are Mr. Micawber from David Copperfield (1849) and Jo from Bleak House (1852). Tobacco consumers would have likely recognized these literary figures and drawn amusement from their depictions.
Like some of his characters, Dickens enjoyed a smoke. According to Does it Pay to Smoke? published in 1872, James Parton writes, “Mr. Dickens, they say, toys with a cigar occasionally, but can hardly be reckoned among the smokers, and never touches a cigar when he has a serious task on hand.” [20]
Other tobacco products, however, disconcerted the great novelist. On a visit to America during the early 1840s, Dickens wrote: “. . . the prevalence of those two odious practices of chewing and expectorating . . . became most offensive and sickening. In all the public places of America this filthy custom is recognized.” [21]
"Shots from Famous Films" (1935)
Printed in 1935, this set showcases well-known scenes from acclaimed films, many of which the era’s collectors would surely have recognized. Some of the set’s most illustrious films include Tarzan and His Mate (1934) and Cleopatra (1934).
The example featured here is a film with a medical theme and major characters who play the roles of healthcare professionals. This card presents a scene from Doctor’s Orders, a 1934 British comedy, which examines the tensions between quackery and allopathic medicine. The film starred Leslie Fuller, Sir John Mills, and Marguerite Allan. [22]
“Builders of Empire” (1937)
This set, printed in 1937, commemorates political figures and other individuals who contributed to British imperialism. Ironically (at least for today’s viewers!), the famous nurse, Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), is featured on one of these cards.
The reverse describes that “[s]he quickly revolutionized army nursing. Her methods reduced the cases of cholera, typhus and dysentery. . . . Her activities greatly improved the health, and consequently the effectiveness, of the British Army.” As one historian puts it, “If she had been alive in the second half of the twentieth century, there is little doubt that Florence Nightingale would have been in the vanguard of anti-smoking protest.” [34]
The second card represents the explorer, Captain James Cook (1728–1779), renowned for his global adventures. Again, part of the “Builders of Empire” series, this card celebrates British imperialism, showcasing many of the most influential actors in this era of expansion.
According to an anthropologist, “By the early part of that century [the seventeenth] tobacco had become normalized and was widely used by Europeans of all nationalities. It also had diffused to most of Asia and to at least parts of Oceania.” [35] Furthermore, the explorer depicted on this card “introduced tobacco to the New Zealand Māori in 1770, and they took avidly to smoking.” [36] Curiously, this cigarette card, which was itself issued to encourage smoking, also commemorates a historical figure who promoted tobacco on a global scale during his travels.
More Examples of Cigarette Cards
Printed in 1925, this set features the profiles of infamous pirates and other swashbuckling criminals. According to the reserve side of this card, “The depredations of this pirate in 1695, caught the public fancy and made Avery the ‘hero’ of several popular novels and plays.”
The card from this set, printed in 1935, features a scene from I Was a Spy, a British film released in 1933. Inspired by true events from Word War I, the film tells the story of a Belgian nurse who provides medical care to German soldiers while working as a spy for the British. [40] The film, in fact, is based on the memoir of the same title (I Was a Spy!) authored by Marthe Cnockaert McKenna, the real-life figure who inspired the movie. [41] Famous cast members included Madeleine Carroll and Conrad Veidt.
Celebrating scenes from the reign of King George V, this set was printed in 1935 and features major milestones in the ruler’s life. The other side of the card details this illustrious ceremony: “The Royal Salute crashed out, and thousands of the new Monarch’s subjects gathered in the Mall joined in the National Anthem.”
Printed in 1916, this set of cards features individual street cries of London’s marketplace, illustrating the breadth of urban life . This card showcases the much-maligned oyster peddler. According to the reverse side, “In Charles I.’s reign the London shopkeepers denounced the oyster-wives and other street-traders as ‘unruly people,’ and in 1694 they were threatened with whipping as rogues and beggars. In spite of this, however, they continued to flourish. . . .”
Titled “Characters from Thackeray,” this colorful series was printed in 1913 and celebrates major characters from the novels of British author, William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863). Depicted here is Rawdon Crawley from the novel, Vanity Fair, published in 1848.
Some of Thackeray’s characters provide amusing perspectives on smoking, such as those found in The Confessions of Fitz-Boodle: “I am not, in the first place, what is called a ladies’ man, having contracted an irrepressible habit of smoking after dinner, which has obliged me to give up a great deal of the dear creatures’ society; nor can I go much to country houses for the same reason. The ladies seem to distrust men who smoke. But why should they consider smoking a crime?” [42]
