Since 1789, when the first tobacco advertisement appeared, tobacco manufacturers have been pioneers of advertising and marketing, revolutionizing the American way of doing business in the process. The folksy, familiar and innocent-looking images portrayed in tobacco advertising were part of the new wave of product promotion - tin tags, cigar and tobacco labels, insert cards (including the first baseball cards) - that helped transform America into a nation of smokers by 1900. With illustrations of antique artifacts, old photographs and contemporary advertising, the reader is taken through the rapid growth of the tobacco industry following the Civil War, and shown a wide-range of promotional ploys and gimmickry that evolved in this century: tobacco tins, cigarette pack art, and outdoor advertising. Other advertising objects include lapel buttons, pocket mirrors, postcards, watch fobs, pocketknives, envelope stickers and more. All are lavishly illustrated, many in full color, and an informative value guide is included.

Cigar Box Labels: Portraits of Life, Mirrors of History pays tribute to cigars and the pictorial glory of Victorian-era cigar box labels, a unique form of commercial advertising that flourished in the business place a century ago and helped drive cigars to widespread prominence in American society. Those who fancy these stunningly beautiful paper images as a hobby are in the midst of the hottest area of antique tobacco advertising collecting today. Showcased here are some of the finest and most desirable examples produced by the old stone chromolithographic method between 1860 and 1910. This book also explores some of the rich historical past that surrounds cigars-their manufacture, marketing, and, most of all, their mystique. Also featured is a potpourri of contemporary anecdotes, poems, and other bits of literary whimsy designed to amuse, educate, and titillate the imagination.

Those who will recall the Simpson trial as the legal extravaganza of its century might be surprised by striking parallels between it and the late-nineteenth century trial of the infamous Frank James. In 1882, James urrendered to authorities voluntarily and was tried for murder the following year in Gallatin, Missouri. Petrone's analysis of primary and secondary sources tells the story of a charismatic prominent figure, who assembles his century's legal dream team and in the face of overwhelming incriminating evidence, wins acquittal from a sympathetic jury. 'The trial of Frank James has never before been explored in detail, although his acquittal has long screamed for explanation' - Bill O'Neal. 'Scholars as well as 'buffs' have always neglected the trial of Frank James. Thus ""Judgment at Gallatin"" fills in a major gap in our knowledge of the James brothers' - Richard Maxwell Brown.