Richmond Firsts by RAY SCHREINER

It’s in the Cards
 
 
Lewis Ginter, born in New York, traveled with his favorite uncle on business trips throughout the south. In 1842, when he was 18 years old, he opened a small linen store at 137 Main St. in Richmond, which successfully expanded to include “Fancy Goods of Every Description.”
 
After the War, he went back to New York and became a partner in a Wall Street banking and brokerage house which failed in the panic of 1873.
 
He returned to Richmond and entered a partnership with John F. Allen, a manufacturer of cigars, chewing tobacco and pipe tobacco. Although Allen eventually withdrew from the firm, the business remained incorporated as Allen and Ginter.
 
Ginter’s main job was selling the products. In his travels he became aware of the interest in cigarettes, so in 1875 the company introduced “Richmond Gems,” cigarettes hand-rolled and produced on the premises.
 
To encourage the purchase of this new product, Ginter, drawing on his experience selling linens in attractive packages, designed packages for the cigarettes. He utilized a new technique that used cards not only to advertise the product, but also to stiffen the package.
 
In 1887, he issued a 50-card set that featured Wild West Show star Annie Oakley, boxer John Sullivan and 10 baseball players.
 
The cards expanded to include, among other things, national flags, newspaper editors, kings and rulers, actresses and actors, and American birds. As a premium, every package of Ginter’s products included a picture from one of these series. The cards today, regardless of subject, are called “baseball cards.”
 
Allen and Ginter was the second tobacco company to issue cards. Over the years these early cards have continued to increase in value among collectors. Allen and Ginter cards are still on the market and continue to be sought after by collectors as they are reworked and sold by the Topps Company.
 
The Topps Chewing Gum Company included cards with its gum in 1938. Realizing the name was significant in history, in 2006 it created an Allen and Ginter series. Today the Topps Company no longer produces chewing gum and the cards are found mostly in hobby and antique stores.
 
An Allen and Ginter card that has recently gained considerable attention has a picture of George Washington and includes a strand of his hair. One of the cards was sold on E-Bay for $7,499.99. Allegedly, one bidder planned to use the hair to clone Washington.
 
The Topps company plans to continue this unique feature this year with cards of Jack Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln—and their hair.
 

Ray Schreiner is a volunteer at the Valentine Richmond History Center and the Virginia Historical Society, and is an avid reader of old newspapers.