t206 Interviews by old collectors...

[Jamie_h]

Wondering if any of the big collectors in the 50s-60s interviewed any American Lithographic Co. or ATC employees from back in the t206 production times? If so, is that information out there?

[trdcrdkid]

In the early 1940s, Jefferson Burdick tried to find out when the first tobacco insert cards were issued. As part of his research, he tried to contact some of the lithographic firms that made the cards, but he didn't find out anything of value from them. Here is the relevant paragraph from his article "Who and When" in the February 1, 1942 Card Collector's Bulletin, and a link to my post with scans of the article:

"The most obvious sources of information are the tobacco firms who issued the cards and the printing firms who made them. Here, though, is found almost certain disappointment as most of the firms are long are long out of business and no records bearing on early cards seem to have been kept. Some few of the old lithographic firms are believed to still exist and these are being contacted as possible with results, thus far, being of no value."

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=239836

Burdick did hear from some old collectors who had collected tobacco cards in the 1880s, and their reminiscences are quoted in the article above. The above post also includes an article by C. G. Sturtevant from the December 1, 1943 CCB with his more detailed memories of collecting cards in the 1880s.

The above articles are about 19th century tobacco cards. There were more people around who had collected T206s as kids, and some of them survived into the 1980s and wrote down their recollections in hobby publications. Here is an article from 1949 by William J. Christie, with his memories of collecting T206s and other tobacco cards 40 years earlier:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=235011

Here is a 1971 article by Wirt Gammon with his memories of collecting T205 and T206 as a kid:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=217635

Here is a 1983 article about John Wagner with his memories of collecting T206:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=207915

These aren't quite what you're looking for, but at least they're firsthand accounts of what it was like to collect T206s when they first came out.

[Jamie_h]

Thanks so much for taking the time to post these. Can’t wait to read them.