The Gallaher How to Do Its were a set of British 100 cigarette cards, each depicting and describing a 19th (?) century life-hack (the collection is undated).
Although many of these are out of date (trimming lamp-wicks, preventing spills from ink-pots), many others are quite useful, like fitting an overlarge candle in a candlestick, keeping saucepan lids raised, boiling potatoes, getting corks to fit wine-bottles, and drawing a duck.
The whole set can be found in the George Arents Collection, a special collection of the New York Public Library that has been scanned and made available along with 100,000 other meticulously catalogued cigarette cards from around the world.
You can download these at medium resolutions (760px wide) or you can buy unlimited-use hi-rez TIFs from $50 (for individuals) to $400 (!) (for commercial publishers looking for cover images).
Gallaher How to Do It [George Arents Collection/NYPL]
(via Danismm)
