1ST BASEBALL CARDS

The Origins of the First Baseball Cards

The tradition of collecting baseball cards can be traced back to the late 1860s when baseball began to emerge from its amateur roots into the newly professional national pastime that it is today. In those early years of pro ball, colorful lithographed trade cards began appearing as promotional items for various businesses like tobacco companies, snack foods, and saloons. While not specifically made for the purpose of collecting, these early trade cards helped plant the seeds that would later blossom into the robust hobby of baseball memorabilia and cards that exists presently.

Among the very first baseball cards ever made were a series of trade cards issued between 1866-1868 by the Plum Brand baking powder and tobacco companies. These cards promoted both businesses but also included rosters and short biographies of players from the early National Association professional league teams like the New York Mutuals, Boston Red Stockings and Philadelphia Athletics. They are considered to be the earliest known printed cards specifically featuring baseball players. While scarce today, they proved there was consumer interest in representations of ballplayers even in the game’s infancy.

In 1875, the Goodwin & Co. cigarette company issued an ambitious 365-card set spanning the entire calendar year and featuring statistical Achievements for the 1874 season. Each card depicted an individual player and included stats such as batting average and fielding record. This set showed tobacco companies were starting to see the promotional appeal that baseball stars held for their products and is seen as a pivotal step towards the modern model of traded, album-contained cardboard issues specifically geared for young collectors.

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Though it did not feature stats, perhaps the most famous early baseball card set was produced in 1887 by the American Tobacco Company through their Mayo Cut Plug brand. Known as the Mayo Bros. “Base Ball” cards, this 59-card series included photographs of top players from the American Association and National League on the front with the player’s name and team below. While the backs had no stats or info besides plugs for Mayo Cut Plug, these were the first mass-produced, photograph-backed cards and helped elevate the status of baseball memorabilia in the public eye. Today a complete set in excellent condition can fetch over $100,000 at auction.

In the 1890s is when baseball cards truly took off in popularity as a collectible item. Companies like Old Judge, Leaf and Allen & Ginter began inserting higher quality, photographic cards into their cigarette and tobacco products. These chromolithographed cards helped spread baseball’s reach across the USA through traded card swapping among youth. Notable early sets included the iconic 1892-93 Tobacco Card issues and Allen & Ginter’s Champions of the National League 1888-89. They often heavily featured star players of the day like Cap Anson, King Kelly and Honus Wagner, the first true icons of baseball’s golden age.

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This period also saw card makers experimenting with innovative designs beyond standard vertical headshots. Allen & Ginter promoted their sets with fun diamond-shaped cards highlighting different baseball “plays” and achievements. While difficult for collectors to mount, these posed an early attempt to craft creative cards beyond simple stats and biography focus. Series like Leaf’s History Makers gave short career bios of legends like “Pud” Galvin, one of the earliest pitchers inducted to Cooperstown. By the late 1890s, collecting organized clubs began springing up as the hobby exploded in America’s youth.

Sporting goods magnates like Spalding also got in the game around this time, producing high quality tobacco inserts profiling the modernization of baseball such as the historic transition from bare hands to mitts in the 1870s. Meanwhile, early regional sets cropped up celebrating minor and independent leagues joining the game. One of the earliest known was the 1887 Denver Grizzlies set produced to promote the original minor league club out West. Burgeoning card makers were recognizing the moneymaking potential of tapping into developing local fandom nationwide.

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Tragedy struck the collectibles industry on April 15, 1912 with the sinking of the RMS Titanic. A significant trove of rare vintage baseball cards including pristine 1887 Mayo Bros. issues and early Allen & Ginter sets were lost among the personal effects of prominent New York dealer Hamilton Easter. This unfortunate event added to the mystique of early surviving cards and forever solidified the appeal of near extinct pre-1900 issues among the most prized by antiquarians and the emerging formal hobby.

While certainly crude by today’s standards, those first lithographed trade and tobacco cards of the 1860s-1880s carved the initial path for baseball’s memorabilia boom in the 20th century. They proved star players could move product and stir interest beyond just attendance at ballparks. Through pioneering sets produced by industry leaders like tobacco giants and sporting goods moguls, beautiful and informative cards spread the proliferation of baseball statistics and lore across the nation. Though scarcity makes them invaluable, early card collections formed the foundation upon which today’s massive industry of collecting, history, and nostalgia was built. Baseball cards have come a long way, yet their genesis can be traced back to over 150 years ago with those very first cardboard representations of the national pastime.

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