This is one of a set of chromolithograph cards produced by Ballin & Liebler in 1882 advertising a tour managed by H.R. Jacobs of a Variety company starring 'General' Tom Thumb, or Charles Stratton (1838-1883) and his wife Lavinia (1842-1919). The New York lithographic company Ballin & Liebler issued two other sets of advertising cards related to General Tom Thumb and his wife, one illustrated with images of their wedding in 1863, and another with images of their appearances on their 1864 European tour.

This card is shaped like an artist's palette as a novelty, and is illustrated with four images of J.H. Whiston the 'humorist' [sic]and 'great facial artist' as characters he impersonated in his 'Olio of Oddities' including the Yankee Phrenologer (in a stove-pipe hat) and Mrs. Partington (in a white bonnet). Whiston appeared on the 1882 tour along with Charles Stratton (Tom Thumb) and his wife, 'Major' Edward Newell, the skater on 'parlor skates', Zoe Meleke and her performing canaries, and James W. Bingham the ventriloquist.

A playbill owned by the Connecticut Historical Society for a performance by Whiston at Allyn Hall, Hartford, 2 May 1864, depicts him as other characters he impersonated including A Yankee Orator, Judge Perriwinkle, Mr. Snubs, The Old Maid, a Fat Old Glutton, a Laughing Crying Sexton, and The Hypochondiac. In 1879 he also appeared at Burnell's Dime Museum, New York with his so-called 'parlor entertainments'.