WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 53Etienne Leopold Trouvelot, produced
beautiful astronomical artwork,
which was reproduced many
times. Kranz painted beautifully
atmospheric images such as the Big Dipper
and Little Dipper above a frozen field.
Originals from these artists are quite
valuable, but prints have
also survived and are
worth collecting.
Some images poke fun
at astronomy and astrono-
mers, and the public’s
interest in both. The
British satirical magazine
Punch was particularly
creative. One drawing
shows a group of middle-
class viewers bemused by
a sidewalk astronomer.
The world of gaming
also got into the act.
Famous 19th-century astronomers such as
Sir Robert Ball, Sir William Huggins, and
Lord James Lindsay appeared on playing
cards made by Vanity Fair.
Stereo cards
The first photograph of the Moon — taken
in 1840 by astronomer John W. Draper —
was printed on metal as a daguerreotype.
Within a few years, paper photographs
became common. Then two images were
combined to create stereo cards.
By the 1860s, every middle-class home
had a stereo viewer and a box filled with
cards showing scenes from around the
world. Some of the stereo cards boasted
astronomical subjects. A stereo card of the
Moon from this period was based on pho-
tographs by Draper. Unfortunately, many
early cards were pro-
duced on poor-quality
paper and have not sur-
vived in large numbers.
One of my cards
shows a group of chil-
dren involved in an
astronomy lesson, with
the young “professor”
draped in his father’s
dressing robe. Another
has a fake image of
Saturn with what appears
to be cardboard rings. By
the 1870s and beyond,
both the paper quality and the artwork on
the cards had become much better.
A card from 1902 shows the business
end of the great equatorial refracting tele-
scope at Lick Observatory, on Mount
Hamilton in California. It almost makes
the viewer want to reach in and turn the
knobs. By the turn of the 20th century,
these cards sported real celestial images of
Saturn, Mars, nebulae, comets, and even
meteors. This is how the public saw astron-
omy more than a hundred years ago.Lucky Strike means ...
By far, the most beautiful and prolific
source of astronomical ephemera comes
in the form of tea and cigarette cards. In
1875, the Allen & Ginter tobacco company
began placing small, colorful cards into
cigarette packages. Some of the earliest
baseball cards were, in fact, produced as
cigarette cards. The cards were issued
in series to encourage smokers to buy
more packs.
By the 1880s, the British cigarette com-
pany H.O. Willis also started to issue
cards to increase sales. Other British man-
ufacturers soon embraced this marketing
idea enthusiastically, and, indeed, many of
the best cards were printed in England. It
wasn’t long before they were appearing in
tea packages, chocolate tins, and other
products. These cards covered every con-
ceivable topic, including astronomy.
I was introduced to astronomical ciga-
rette cards by the English astronomer of
lunar nomenclature fame, Ewen Whitaker.
These incredibly delightful and colorful
cards are quite small, measuring only 2.5
by 1.5 inches (64 by 38 millimeters).
The cards always have a graphic image
on the front and detailed information on
the back. The series usually contained
between 20 and 50 cards. That’s a lot of
cigarettes! A collector could learn all the
constellations, how telescopes and spec-
troscopes work, famous astronomers, andThe first
photographof the Moon —
taken in 1840
by astronomer
John W. Draper
— was printed
on metal as a
daguerreotype.^