The year 1890 marked the earliest known production of baseball cards as we know them today. While various trade cards featuring baseball players had been produced prior to 1890, it was in this year that cigarette companies began inserting small card-sized images of ballplayers into their packs and rolls of cigarettes as promotional incentives. These early baseball cards not only helped spur interest in baseball but played a pivotal role in the rise of modern memorabilia collecting.
The two companies primarily responsible for these pioneering baseball cards were the American Tobacco Company and the Ogden Brothers Cigarette Manufacturers of Louisville, Kentucky. The reason these companies chose baseball cards in particular to include was due to the rising popularity of the sport across the United States. Baseball had begun turning professional in the late 1860s and by 1890 had grown into one of the most widely followed sporting spectacles in the nation. Given that the majority of cigarette brands targeted male consumers, baseball cards were seen as an ideal marketing tool for appealing to this growing baseball fan demographic.
Most of the cards produced in 1890 were part of larger multi-sport and non-sport series brands were running at the time such as Sporting Life, Old Judge, and Allen & Ginter. These releases marked the earliest known dedicated baseball series brand from Ogden’s, which is considered the first bona fide baseball card set. Due to their rarity and historical importance, examples from these pioneering 1890 baseball card runs fetch thousands, and in some cases hundreds of thousands, when they surface at auction today.
One of the most valuable and iconic cards from this period is the legendary Sporting Life 1889 White Stockings card, considered the first widely distributed baseball card ever made. Issued in a Sporting Life tobacco card series the following year, it pictures star Chicago White Stockings (now Cubs) player Bug Holliday. Ingemar Brekke paid an astounding $2.8 million for a copy that achieved the current record price for a single baseball card. Other particularly sought-after 1890 cards include images of future Hall of Famers Ed Delahanty, Dan Brouthers and Jim O’Rourke who were stars for some of the era’s top teams.
In terms of design, most 1890 cards measured approximately 2.5 inches by 1.5 inches and were often printed using a chromolithographic process on thin card stock. Backs were blank. Early issues typically depicted one player per card in either uniform or street clothes against a plain background, though some later cards would feature multiple players or action scenes. Handwritten signatures of the players were absent, as was detailed player statistics or team affiliation information that would be included on later developmental card releases.
While relatively primitive by modern collector standards, these pioneering cards still offered a unique and exciting means of promoting baseball’s biggest stars and served as the genesis for what would become a huge sports memorabilia marketplace. Production-wise, the 1890s saw runs of baseball cards come and go as different manufacturers tried to make the concept catch on, with American Tobacco and Ogden continuing to lead the way. Additional cigarette makers and publishing houses joined in throughout the decade as interest grew. The Cleveland Spiders Ohio League set from the 1893-1894 season is another highly valued early issue.
One notable event for the baseball cards of 1890 occurred that November, when the American Tobacco Company achieved notoriety not for their cards specifically but due to public backlash resulting from publication of articles exposing apparent child labor violations occurring in tobacco factories. These reports caused a scandal that drew added scrutiny toward tobacco marketing aimed at youth, such as their baseball card inserts. While they did not result in an outright ban of cards, these type of societal concerns would shape future baseball card regulation efforts.
By 1899, baseball cards had become an established idea, with more standardized multi-player team sets gaining popularity as opposed to earlier individual player issues or cards mixed among other sports. Many historians argue this transition marked baseball cards coming of age as their own collecting niche. Looking back, it is safe to say that the groundbreaking cards emerging from 1890 played an instrumental role not just in promoting tobacco but in fueling card collecting’s rapid development across the proceeding decades into the multi-billion industry it is today. Their allure and significance also continues rising even after more than a century since these pioneering cardboard pieces of baseball’s earliest past first found their way into smokers’ hands.
