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JoannOK, hang on a second. I have to reset my thinking here.
This box, as far as I can tell, couldn't be folded up into anything in the state shown in the scan. So it couldn't have contained anything - candy or whatever.
If that's the case, why the reference to the FDA?
Were they obtained by the kids like this - in this state? Maybe as a penny toy just to be the camera? And again, why the FDA ref? If it was supposed to contain something, was this one something that was never put to its intended use and just went out the back door of the factory?
To me, unless you cut the side attachments on two of the cards (Birmingham and Mullin as shown in the scan), it could never be folded up. But this one does not appear to be cut. And it's unlikely that all four were detached at the factory and inserted into the camera, because they are found today with either one or two rounded corners as shown in the uncut version above. It seems like if they were factory detached, all four corners would be square. (And the cost of detaching and inserting the four photos would probably be as much as or more than the cost of printing and die-cutting the flat layout.)
Dan - when you folded up your printout, did you have to cut the sides on the two cards, or could the snapshots be folded into the ends with no further cuts than shown in the scan?
Cool cool object. Like someone said upthread, how stunning that the mystery is solved after 100 years. Wow. But still more questions.
Joann