SHUFFLING ALONG WITH HISTORYBy Rod Starling

There is no doubt that the collecting of playingcards in and of itself is a most satisfying and enjoy-able occupation. It needs no further recommenda-tion, it is a pleasure complete unto itself. Neverthe-less, I have found it to be of additional interestwhenever I am able to fit certain decks of cards intoa particular historical time frame and to try and getthe feel for what kinds of decks were in use whilecertain events were taking place in the world. Inthe hope that you may find the exercise to be ofinterest, I shall set forth just a few of the events thathave occurred at the various times when some ofour favorite American decks were introduced or atleast in use. Because it is not always known exact-ly when such decks were made, the historical con-nections may be approximate but certainly closeenough to establish a sense of congruity or per-haps the lack thereof. I have tried to select thoseevents that I felt would be most readily recognizedand have limited the time frame to certain yearsfrom 1848 to 1908.

When Andrew Dougherty started his playing cardbusiness in 1848, the AD1a deck was among thosehe issued that year. It was also the year Wisconsinwas granted statehood and that saw the end of theMexican-American War. When the AD1f deck wasrun off the Dougherty press in 1851, the New YorkTimes started its presses and Isaac Singer in-vented the famous Singer Sewing Machine. A yearearlier, in 1850, Dougherty issued AD1c from his 78Cliff Street N.Y. address with the one-way ThomasCrehore court cards.

The Lawrence & Cohen illuminated deck, NY10,was issued in 1863. It was a beautiful deck and afine example of craftsmanship but it stood in starkcontrast to the horror of the Battle of Gettysburgthat was fought that year with the loss of Americanlives from both the North and the South totaling inthe tens of thousands in just one day.

In 1864, Louis Pasteur invented what came to beknown as the “pasteurization” process that he firstapplied to the treatment of wine, not milk. In thatsame year Dougherty produced his Excelsior cards,AD4. His beautiful illuminated deck, AD3 was is-sued in 1865, the same year that saw the laying ofthe transatlantic cable, the assassination of Presi-dent Abraham Lincoln, the passage of the 13th

amendment abolishing slavery and the publicationof Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Alice, as Iam sure we all recall, was quite involved with adeck of cards. For those who are fans of Alice, Ihighly recommend Alice’s Adventures in Wonder-land published in 1989 by Ariel Books/Alfred A,Knopf, New York. It is beautifully illustrated by S.Michelle Wiggins and includes illustrations of a verycreative deck of cards. Copyright prohibits my pic-turing them here but the artist was kind enough toinform me that the deck is actually marked andchallenged me to find the marks. So far, I have notbut she told me I was “close”.

Paper Fabrique Company produced its Great Mo-gul deck, L3, in 1867. That was the year in whichJohann Strauss composed the beautiful Blue Da-nube Waltz and in which the United States pur-chased Alaska from Russia for $7.2.million. It wasalso the year in which a certain Pierre Michaux be-gan manufacturing bicycles, a little item from whichUSPC, starting in 1885, certainly got a lot of mi-leage with its Bicycle brand and that is still goingstrong today. I’m surprised that they never dedi-cated a deck to him.

In 1871, Lawrence & Cohen was newly merged intothe New York Consolidated Card Company and itsNY13 deck reflects the gradual process of adaptingto the new name. The Ace of Spades still carriesthe L&C name but the Best Bower only mentionsConsolidated Card Co. N.Y. In October of thatyear, the Great Chicago Fire took place destroyingmost of the city’s buildings and killing 300 people.

Moving on to 1876, we find that the American Play-ing Card Co. of New York produced a very nicedeck, L10 and also Broadway Steamboats #288,L11, while The New York Consolidated Card Com-pany produced its Patented Squeezers brand,NY47, all in the same year that Alexander Grahambell invented the telephone and the National Base-ball League was founded. It was also the year inwhich Wild Bill Hickok was assassinated while play-ing in a poker game. When the fatal bullet struck,Bill was holding a hand consisting of two Aces andtwo Eights. Such a poker hand has to this daycome to be known as the “Dead Man’s Hand”.

The Squeezers brand continued in production forquite some time including 1879, the year in whichThomas Edison invented the electric light bulb andwhich no doubt improved the conditions for playingevening card games.

The Congress brand of cards was introduced byUSPC in 1881, a year in which the US populationexceeded 50 million, James Garfield was inaugu-rated and Clara Barton founded the Red Cross.

Some of the earliest American decks included Jok-ers that pictured a Chinese, often in a derogatoryfashion and sometimes even titled “Heathen Chi-nee”. In addition to the usual prejudice to whichnew immigrants to the U.S.A. were often subjected,it would appear that the Chinese represented athreat to the labor force because in 1882, Congressbanned Chinese immigration for ten years! EarlySteamboat decks also featured Jokers that de-picted Negroes in one way or another and the Na-tional Playing Card Company issued its Steamboat# 9 deck in the same year.

Dougherty issued his final version of the triplicatebrand, AD13, in 1883. It introduced the beginningsof the corner numerical index and was the year thatsaw the opening of the famous Brooklyn Bridge, amaster piece of engineering that still stands in fullvigor today. The Manhattan end of the bridgelanded just a few short blocks from Dougherty’sfactory at 68 Center Street.

The famous Tally-Ho brand was issued by Dough-erty in 1885 and, as just mentioned, the Bicycle 808brand was also introduced that year by USPC, acompany that liked to relate some of its brandnames to branches of the government such asCongress, Capitol, Cabinet, Treasury and evenArmy and Navy. Fittingly, the Washington Monu-ment was completed in 1885 and although surpri-singly, USPC did not come out with a “Monument”brand, it did feature the monument on the back ofits Washington, The Nation’s Capital Souvenir Play-ing Cards (S65) issued c1909.

1886 saw the ongoing production of several newbrands introduced by the National Playing CardCompany including Owls, Arrows and Aladdin. Italso saw the introduction by Russell & MorganPrinting Co. of the Tourist #155 brand. In thatsame year the American Federation of Labor (AFofL)) was founded and the Statue of Liberty was ded-icated in New York Harbor. The structural engineerof the statue was Gustave Eiffel who we will hearmore of below.

By 1888 USPC had many brands in the market andTourists #155 was still running. In that year, Jackthe Ripper murdered six women in London andthat, I am sure, did not help its tourist trade.

The production of playing cards by numerous mak-ers was quite prolific in the late nineteenth centuryand significant events kept pace. To save space, Iwill now compress those events against a back-ground of playing card production.

1889. USPC introduced Skat #2; Skat #4 and Tex-an 45. Gustave Eiffel, of Statue of Liberty fame,built his famous Eiffel Tower in Paris.

1895. USPC introduces Trophy Whist #39. Nation-al Card Company issues a second edition of its Bi-jou brand and Bay State Card Company issues itsThistle and Whist Club #37 brands. C. Gillette in-vents the safety razor; H.G.Wells publishes TheTime Machine and Tchaikovsky composes Swan

Lake for the ballet. The year also saw the birth of J.Edgar Hoover and Babe Ruth.

1896. The rare New Era No.46 is issued by USPC.The Klondike Gold Rush began and Puccini com-posed the opera, La Boheme.

Although the Standard Playing Card ManufacturingCompany issued an Air-Ship brand of cards thatthe Hochman Encyclopedia lists as having beenissued c1900, it is possible that it was issued asearly as 1898 to capitalize on the advent of theZeppelin airship built by Count Von Zeppelin in thatyear. 1898 was also the year in which Marie Curiediscovered radium, H.G.Wells published his War ofthe Worlds and the Spanish-American War wasfought from April to December. That war was com-memorated by the Gray Lithographing Co. issuing aspecial Anheuser-Busch deck (W15) and the end ofthe war was commemorated by the issuance of asimilar deck for Anheuser-Bush by USPC (W16).

1903 appears to have been a year that was rathertranquil. World War 1 was over a decade away andthe Great Depression even further afar. Perhapsthe Success and Strollers brands of the KalamazooPaper Box and Card Company reflected the calm ofthe times. This year saw the founding of the FordMotor Company, the first baseball World Series andthe first powered flight by the Wright brothers atKitty Hawk, in North Carolina.

In 1905 the Willis W. Russell Card Company wasfounded and the playing card market was treated toa very fine but brief production of it brands of cards.One such brand was Recruits that featured “longdistance” pips that were designed to help players indistinguishing the different suits in the game ofBridge. While Bridge experts were developing sys-tems for solving the complex problems posed bythe game, Albert Einstein published his SpecialTheory of Relativity in an effort to solve the myste-ries of the universe. Russell’s Retrievers brandwas produced in 1908. Henry Ford produced theModel T car and the rival company, General Mo-tors, was formed.

I think that I have covered enough history to giveyou a sense of my interest in its correlation with theproduction of American playing cards. No doubtyou may find many other instances of the kind. It’sa fascinating exercise and can give the cards inyour collection a real sense of context.

Editor’s Note; A great journey through early playingcard years in American - thanks for the trip, Rod.