In 1893, Chicago hosted the World’s Fair / Columbian Exposition and the Fair included the very first Midway with the very first Ferris Wheel. Artists from the BB&S type foundry drew images of some of the characters seen on the Midway and had these images made into lead ornaments for printers to use which were about one inch high. The foundry gave these ornaments the name Midway Midgets because of the small size of the print. [It was a different time and was in no way referring to the size of the people portrayed.] I scanned these public domain images and had copper dies made of them expanding the image to two inches high.

Each playing card went through the press three times, for the character in one of the four suit colors, the card identification, and the Ferris Wheel on the back of each card. The paper is 100% cotton and the letterpress printing leaves a bite in the paper. It took me about 14,000 pulls on the printing press handle and three months to print the one hundred decks.

These cards were printed by me on a hand operated letterpress printing press, an Old Style Pilot Press made around 1920. I still have some of the limited edition of one hundred decks available here.

KickStarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/americanindiancards/1893-chicago-midway-playing-cards-and-companion-book