Maybe the most popular of all of the Buchner sets, N288 (usually shortened to “Police Captains” from its wordy title) was another creation that depended on the popularity and resources of Richard K. Fox’s National Police Gazette and its promotion of law & order types. Policemen from New York are the set’s main focus, but there are also police and firemen from New Jersey and four firemen from Connecticut.
As of early 2025, there are 97 unique subjects known. A few cards were added to the checklist only in the past 20 years; my guess is that there are 3 more N288’s remaining to be discovered, which would get us to 100. They’re likely firemen and, very possibly, from New Jersey or Connecticut, since those are the scarcest cards in the set. We can’t have a prime number like 97 stand in our way.
10 of the policemen in this set can also be found in the Duke N151 “Actresses & Celebrities” set in photographs.
