American Lithograph Company Purchased Seven Lithograph Companys in 1892

[steve B]

I've been meaning to get to our local historical society to do some looking up.

The company that did the orange border candy boxes moved here in 1910, did the candy boxes and for some reason didn't make it beyond I think early 1911.

That set shares a bunch of pictures with T206, and I've wondered if there's any connection with ALC. Either favorable, or if they copied images without permission and that's what did them in.

[Michael Peich]

From the research I have undertaken regarding T209s and T210s, American Lithographic Corporation (ALC) and American Tobacco Company (ATC) were monopolies. Buck Duke of ATC was a close friend of Joseph Palmer Knapp whose family created ALC in 1892. ALC was a conglomerate that absorbed a number of lithographic printers, like George S. Harris, Heppenheimer's & Sons, etc. As a reult of their "absorption," ALC created a monopoly of lithographic printing so that all T206s cards, as well as many other litho printed images, were produced by them. It was a sweet deal during the tobacco card era for Duke & Knapp, but with the court ordered dissolution of ATC, ALC embarked on a period of economic challenges.

Cheers, Mike