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ARBUCKLES' ILLUSTRATED ATLAS
of the
UNITED STATES of AMERICA

Actual Size: 6-7/8" x 11-1/8" (shown approx. 1/2 scale, above)
Pages: 14 (incl. covers)
Copyrighted: 1889
Lithographer: Donaldson Brothers, N.Y.

This wonderful booklet was offered by Arbuckles' Notion Department as an advertising premium. All that was required was to send in 15 signatures cut from 1-lb. packages of Arbuckles' Ariosa Coffee, along with a 2¢ stamp, and the album would soon arrive in the mailbox, hopefully even before the next 15 pounds of coffee was polished off! I believe that this album, along with similar ones for the National Geographical ("Illustrated Atlas of Fifty Principal Nations of the World") and Zoological series ("Album of Illustrated Natural History"), was among the earliest premiums that Arbuckles' ever offered. This one is listed as No. 5 (of 22) in an 1896 premium list that I have, and was probably available for several years before and after that time.

The album contains illustrations of all 50 cards in the original State and Territory Maps series, arranged four to a page, with District of Columbia on the front cover (see above) and Alaska on the back (see below). The front cover also shows a globe featuring the Western Hemisphere at the left, and a branch bearing what I assume to be coffee beans at the right. The back cover shows a scene of the Arbuckle factories (or "stores", as it says on one building) and docks at night, with a full moon in the sky and the lights burning brightly in every window.

Each "card" in the album appears to use the identical illustration as the corresponding individual card in the series. However, the album also includes several paragraphs of narrative text describing each state or territory (except for the 2 on the covers). This text did not appear on the original cards. (The narrative for most states also includes a reference of some kind to Arbuckles' Ariosa Coffee. In some cases they make rather outlandish claims for the product, such as attributing to it Chicago's quick recovery from the great fire of 1871, and the low death rate in West Virginia!)

>> ALERT <<

Scraps cut from this album may sometimes be found offered for sale as "cards" by uninformed (best case) or unscrupulous (worst case) dealers. They're easily identifiable since the text on the back of the "card" doesn't match the illustration on the front (leading those unscrupulous dealers to describe them as rare "printing errors"). In addition, the album pages were printed on a lighter-weight paper stock than the real cards.

The inside of the back cover contains this monochrome map of the United States, and opposite it is the page shown below. It makes the astonishing claim that coffee can prevent yellow fever!

The album is bound with a thin cord and arranged so that when it's opened to any given page, the four states illustrated on the right-hand page are matched by their descriptions on the left-hand page (i.e., the back of the previous page). Only D.C. and Alaska, because of their positions on the covers, are not presented this way, and are, in fact, not described at all in the album.

There are (at least) two variations in the spacing of the holes punched for the binding cord.  Some albums have a narrow spacing of 1 inch between the center hole and the top and bottom holes (shown on the two covers, above), while others have a wider spacing of just over 1.5 inches (which can be seen on the individual pages that follow). I don't know if the printer made a deliberate change from one print run to the next, or if there's any way to determine if one variety preceded the other.  Perhaps they just had multiple presses (or binders) running which just happened to be set differently.

COFFEE AS A DISINFECTANT.


A German Physician has found out that Coffee Kills Bacteria.
FROM THE BOSTON HERALD.

          An old negro living in a district where the disease often prevailed once told the writer that one of the best preventive measures against yellow fever was an infusion of coffee. Some years ago he passed through an epidemic of that grave malady under the worst possible conditions. For at least a month he occupied the quarters of a large number of sufferers, passing night and day among them, eating and sleeping in their midst.
         Recalling the homely advice given him, he faithfully tried coffee as an antiseptic and drank freely of a very strong infusion five or six times a day, and continued the practice all the time he was under exposure. He was fortunate enough to escape contagion, but never attached much importance to the use of the coffee. Considering the results of recent developments, it would seem that the old negro was right in attributing antiseptic properties to it.
          A series of experiments conducted by a German professor has proved that they are quite marked. Several different forms of intestinal bacteria were experimented upon, and their development and growth were found in all cases to be interfered with by the addition of a small quantity of coffee infusion to nutrient gelatin. In pure infusion the bacteria were rapidly destroyed.
          The question as to what constituents exercise the antiseptic effect cannot yet be fully determined. The caffeine is certainly active in only a slight degree; the tannin to a somewhat greater extent; but, presumably, of greatest importance are the substances that are developed by roasting. It is interesting to note that a cup of coffee, left in a room for a week or more, remains almost free from micro-organisms.


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CLICK ON ANY PAGE NUMBER, BELOW, TO VIEW INDIVIDUAL PAGE DETAILS

Page 1: South Carolina, Wisconsin, Maine, Michigan
Page 2: Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky, New Jersey
Page 3: Missouri, Oregon, Iowa, North Dakota
Page 4: Florida, Virginia, Indiana, Rhode Island
Page 5: Indian Territory, Territory of New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas
Page 6: Maryland, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania
Page 7: Colorado, Territory of Utah, Montana, Minnesota
Page 8: North Carolina, Connecticut, West Virginia, Ohio
Page 9: New York, Delaware, Tennessee, New Hampshire
Page 10: Washington, Idaho, Mississippi, California
Page 11: Territory of Wyoming, Alabama, Louisiana, Kansas
Page 12: Territory of Arizona, Nebraska, Nevada, Arkansas