Captain Cook Trading Cards

The Third - and Final - Voyage

Colorful chromolithographic trading cards were a popular promotional item for commercial businesses in the last part of the 19th century, and the first half of the 20th. Small and easily inserted in almost any commodity, they encouraged return business and customer loyalty to a brand, qualities still being sought after by promoters today.

Mitchell, Alaska 1881. United States Coastal Survey. “North Western America showing the territory ceded by Russia to the United States.” From the New General Atlas, Philadelphia: S. Agustus Mitchell, Jr. 1881.

The cards on these pages were produced for the Arbuckle Brothers Coffee Company, founded by John and Charles and Arbuckle of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the post Civil War era. At that time coffee was sold as green coffee beans which had to be roasted in a skillet over a fire, or in a pan in the oven of a woodstove, and then ground using a handheld coffee grinder. James A. Folger was among the first to provide pre-roasted, pre-ground coffee, serving the 49er’s of the California Gold Rush, and the Arbuckle brothers took coffee a step further, being the first to package their coffee in convenient one pound bags by developing a machine to weigh, fill, seal and label them efficiently. Their Ariosa Blend became the most popular coffee among cowboys of the old west, readily found in cowtowns such as Tombstone and Dodge City, and by the turn of the century the Arbuckle Brothers Coffee Company was the largest importer and seller of coffee in the world.

Their most popular promotional program was the small trading cards included in every package of coffee, featuring a series of sports, food, zoology, historic scenes, and similar topics. Their most popular series, maps, included small illustrations portraying “the peculiarities of the history, industry, scenery, etc.,” of the region on the map.

John Webber. “A View of Snug Corner Cove, in Prince William’s Sound.” From A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean Undertaken by the Command of His Majesty, for Making Discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere. London: W. and A. Strahan for G. Nicol and T. Cadell, 1784. This view shows Cook’s two ships, the Resolution and the Discovery, in the background, while natives in canoes are seen in the foreground.

The images accompanying this article are from a series featuring the third expedition (1776–1779) of Captain James Cook, a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy. In his voyages, Cook sailed thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas of the globe, mapping lands from New Zealand to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean in greater detail and on a scale not previously charted by Western explorers. He surveyed and named features, and recorded islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time. He displayed a combination of courage, seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, and an ability to lead men under adverse conditions.

The engraved prints shown here appeared in the official account of Cook’s third voyage, and were done by John Webber, the official artist for the expedition. He was taken along to “give a more perfect idea thereof than can be formed by written description,” and upon returning to England he prepared images for the official report, published in 1784, providing the most comprehensive picture of the Pacific region from the early days of exploration.

John Webber. “Inhabitants of Norton Sound, and their Habituations.” From A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean Undertaken by the Command of His Majesty, for Making Discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere. London: W. and A. Strahan for G. Nicol and T. Cadell, 1784.

On his last voyage, Cook commanded HMS Resolution, while Captain Charles Clerke commanded HMS Discovery. The public was led to believe the voyage was planned in order to return the Pacific Islander Omai to Tahiti, but the trip's principal goal was actually to locate a much sought-after Northwest Passage around the American continent. After dropping Omai at Tahiti, Cook travelled north and in 1778 became the first European to begin formal contact with the Hawaiian Islands. He then sailed for the Pacific coast of North America and set about exploring and mapping along the coast all the way to the Bering Strait, on the way identifying what came to be known as Cook Inlet and Knik and Turnagain Arms.

John Webber. “A Man of Oonalashka.” From A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean Undertaken by the Command of His Majesty, for Making Discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere. London: W. and A. Strahan for G. Nicol and T. Cadell, 1784.

Detail.

In a single visit, Cook charted the majority of the North American northwest coastline on world maps for the first time, determined the extent of Alaska, and closed the gaps in Russian (from the west) and Spanish (from the south) exploratory probes of the northern limits of the Pacific Ocean.

By the second week of August 1778, Cook was through the Bering Strait, sailing into the Chukchi Sea. He headed northeast up the coast of Alaska until he was blocked by sea ice, sailed west to the Siberian coast, and then southeast down the Siberian coast back to the Bering Strait. By early September 1778 he was back in the Bering Sea to begin the trip to the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands. It was there, in February, 1779, where Cook and four of his men were killed in a minor skirmish with the natives. Held in esteem even while tensions broke between them, Cook’s body was honored by a ritual burial by the islanders, and some of his remains were returned to his crew for a formal burial at sea.

Cook's contributions to knowledge gained international recognition during his lifetime. In 1779, while the American colonies were fighting Britain for their independence, Benjamin Franklin wrote to captains of colonial warships at sea, recommending that if they came into contact with Cook's vessel, they were to "not consider her an enemy, nor suffer any plunder to be made of the effects contained in her, nor obstruct her immediate return to England by detaining her or sending her into any other part of Europe or to America; but that you treat the said Captain Cook and his people with all civility and kindness ... as common friends to mankind. ~•~