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Joe DrouillardThanks Ted and Dave for your help. Interesting, Ted, that the building still stands. I wonder if anyone has every searched it's knooks and cranies for records or remnents of old T-cards.
Neat story about the dropped press, Dave, and thanks for the link to the New York Times archive. I've already used it to read about some of the Highlanders of the time. There are some neat stories buried in old newspapers. The Times is the only paper, to my knowledge, that goes back that far in its archives. I know that with the Times there is a limit to the number of articles that you can access for free and the price seems pretty high if you have to pay for access.
Also Dave, I don't know if there is enough information for an article about this, but it bothers me how little we know about the origins of tobacco cards and the people responsible for creating them.
I found Joseph Palmer Knapp's obituary at the following website this afternoon: <a href="http://www.geocities.com/knapphistory/JPK.html"
In his obituary it tells how Knapp was upset because his father only gave him an allowance of $5.00 a week and then insisted that he give $3.00 in the collection plate at church on Sunday. He became a very hardworker, so hard that his work ethic impressed James B. Duke, President of the American Tobacco Company. Knapp wouldn't take time for a lunchbreak and Duke admired him for it. They became good friends and American Tobacco Company one of American Lithographs best customers.
I also found out that Knapp was a big supporter of North Carolina State. The library there is named after him. I imagine that there may be some interesting information about Knapp and possibly American Lithograph in their records.
Any other information that anyone else could add would be appreciated
Joe