Samuel Colt, printer's sample for the World's Inventors souvenir album (A25) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes

Printer's samples for the collector's album "World's Inventors" (A25), issued in 1888 to promote Allen & Ginter brand cigarettes. Citing Burdick's "The American Card Catalog": "Souvenir albums of this type, as issued by the tobacco companies, were probably intended to replace the individual cards if the smoker so desired, or at least enable him to own the entire collection of designs without the difficulty attendant to obtaining all the individual cards in a set. Later, their popularity induced the tobacco companies to publish a few albums that had no card counterparts. All were given in exchange for coupons packed with the cigarettes, usually 75 or 100 coupons for each album...All date in the 1888-1890 period." This series depicting inventors was never issued as individual cards and only released in album form. However, this set of printer's proofs retain individual card form.

Credit: The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, Gift of Jefferson R. Burdick