World’s First Album Cover

Before Alex Steinweiss, then a 23-year-old designer, invented album covers for Columbia Records, albums were sold in plain brown wrappers.

The album to the left, "Smash Song Hits by Rodgers and Hart," was the very first album cover in the world.

Undependent blog has the larger scan: Link | More Album Covers designed by Steinweiss – via J-Walk Blog