T206 Factories

[SetBuilder]

Originally Posted by tedzan

Manny

First, I have to correct you......The factories DID NOT produce the T206 cards. These cards were designed and printed at the American Lithographic Co. in NYC.
Then shipped to the various Tobacco factories to be inserted in their respective Cigarette brand packs.

2nd....here is the answer to your question......

Factory 6 in Middleton, Ohio

Factory 25 in Richmond, Virginia

Factory 30 in New York City

Factory 33 in Wilson, North Carolina

Factory 42 in Durham, North Carolina

Factory 649 in Rochester, New York


TED Z

Ted,

I found an excerpt from the book "The Card: Collectors, Con Men, and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card" by Michael O'Keeffe (don't know who that is): "The Cards were printed at seven factories in New York, Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina...The Gretzky 206 Wagner was imprinted with "Factory 25, 24 Dist. VA.," indicating that the Wagner cards were made at Factory 25 in Virginia. According to T206 historian Scot A. Reader, the vast majority of the Piedmont cards and cigarettes were made at Factory 25." (p. 33)

This information also carries over to the Wikipedia entry for the Wagner card.

[FrankWakefield]

New York, at American Litho. But me saying it won't make it any more believable than when Ted said it.

The cigarettes were made at the cigarette factories. The packaging wasn't made there, just the cigarettes. The American Lithographic Company printed those little cards, and then sent them to the places where the tobacco packages were being assembled, ie the cigarette places and the Ohio place for Polar Bear.

There are MANY inaccuracies in that The Card book. Many. I bought it and read it, found that to be frustrating, I'd cringe or speak out when I came across something that was wrong. The author wanted to write and sell a book, he didn't know very much about old cards, nor about one particular old card.

[SetBuilder]

Yeah, I figured the book lacked credibility.

Books with those kind of titles usually go for sensationalism over objectivity.

[sreader3]

My original Inside T206 manuscript mistakenly stated that the cards were "printed at" the factories. I corrected this error in the second edition to say "distributed from" the factories. O'Keeffe quoted liberally from my original manuscript and unfortunately the error found its way into his book. This has been discussed at length on this forum before.

[White Borders]

Factory 42 - Durham, NC

[Abravefan11]

Great PC's Craig.

[g_vezina_c55]

if i understand corectly , all the T206 cards where printed at american litho and the same place with the same press printer ??? And after that where shipped to the factory write on the bottom of the card ???

[sycks22]

Originally Posted by White Borders

Factory 42 - Durham, NC

The Chimney is still there in the Durham Tabacco road area. It's about 50 yards away from the Durham Bulls stadium. One of those factories were bought by Burt's Bees company. It's a really nice looking area down by the park.

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by SetBuilder

Ted,

I found an excerpt from the book "The Card: Collectors, Con Men, and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card" by Michael O'Keeffe (don't know who that is): "The Cards were printed at seven factories in New York, Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina...The Gretzky 206 Wagner was imprinted with "Factory 25, 24 Dist. VA.,"

This information also carries over to the Wikipedia entry for the Wagner card.

I have read the book "The Card"; and, there are some flaws in it.....and, this is one of the most glaring flaws by the author. And, Wikipedia repeated this myth.

The various Factory's were in business to produce Tobacco products and their machinery was designed for this task. The various Factory's did not employ lithographers
and did not have printing presses. The design and the printing of most T-cards from 1886 - 1919 were the result of specialized craftsmen who were very professional in
the art of lithography. In the 19th Century, George Harris & Sons (Philadelphia) was one of the big producer's of T-cards (N162, etc). At the start of the 20th Century
American Litho. on the East coast and Schmidt Litho. on the West coast were the big Lithographic Company's that produced T-cards.


TED Z

[campyfan39]

33 was definately in Wilson, NC. in the heart of tocacco country. Great little town that has a summer league team called the "Tobs".
It also host the NC Baseball Museum which sports a modest but nice memorabilia collection of all of the players who played in Wilson including Williams. It has large cabinets that feature the NC natives who are in the HOF Buck Leonard, Wilhelm, Gaylord Perry, Ferrell, Hunter, Slaughter and Appling.