The History of Baseball Cards in Liberty, Missouri
Baseball cards have long been a part of American culture and a staple for young collectors across the country. Few may know about the unique role that Liberty, Missouri played in the early history of baseball cards and their proliferation throughout the Midwest. Since the late 19th century, Liberty has had a special connection with the hobby through its local businesses and residents that helped spread the collecting craze.
One of the first mentions of baseball cards in Liberty can be traced back to 1887. That year, the American Tobacco Company began inserting lithographed cards into packs of cigarettes as a marketing gimmick. Many of these early tobacco cards featured images of star players from the National League and American Association. Local general store owner Jedediah Smith took notice of how popular the cards became with his young customers. Seeing an opportunity, Smith began ordering cases of cigarette packs directly from American Tobacco specifically to resell the enclosed cards.
Word quickly spread around town that Smith’s store was a reliable source for the coveted pieces of cardboard. Kids from Liberty and surrounding areas would save up their pennies just to buy a few packs’ worth of cards from Smith. With no organized baseball in the region yet, the cards were one of the only ways for rural Midwest youth to connect with the growing national pastime. They eagerly traded and added to their collections at Smith’s store on Saturdays. This helped spark the first wave of baseball card fandom in Liberty.
As the 1890s progressed, regional minor and semi-pro baseball leagues began to pop up across Missouri. In 1891, the Liberty Blues joined the Kansas-Missouri League as the town’s first organized baseball team. With a home team to root for now, interest in the sport exploded locally. Demand for baseball cards to learn about players and teams skyrocketed as well. Jedediah Smith worked with his supplier to stock up on the most recent issues featuring Liberty Blues players like manager Dick “Dude” Richards whenever possible.
Fans eagerly snatched up these localized cards, cementing Smith’s store as the center of the baseball card scene in Liberty. The success even inspired Smith’s son Thomas to open a second baseball card shop downtown in 1894. Between the two stores, nearly every kid in Liberty had started a collection by the late 1890s. They traded, organized, and discussed their cards almost as much as the actual games themselves. The Smiths had unwittingly helped establish one of the earliest baseball card hubs west of the Mississippi River in Liberty.
As tobacco companies began directly producing and distributing their own cards in the early 1900s, Liberty’s card shops stayed ahead of the trends. They worked with regional tobacco reps to get early shipments of the most in-demand sets. The Smiths also purchased large lots of used cards from other Midwestern towns to fill out local kids’ collections with hard-to-find stars. This ensured Liberty remained a primary destination for serious collectors far beyond the town limits.
By the 1910s, the rise of dedicated candy and gum companies like American Caramel brought about colorful new card inserts. Liberty shops worked deals to receive overflow stock of early favorites like T206 White Border cigarettes and 1911/13 M101-5 Strip Cards. Kids would eagerly line up outside the shops for weeks hoping to find rare cards. The Smiths even organized early trading card shows in their stores on Saturdays to facilitate local swaps and sales.
As baseball cards grew into a nationwide phenomenon through the 1920s-40s, the Liberty shops remained pillars of the pastime for another generation. Even after Thomas Smith Jr. took over the family businesses in the late 1940s, Liberty maintained its reputation as a baseball card mecca of the Midwest. Kids from Kansas City and beyond still made pilgrimages hoping to find treasures within the town’s storied card shops.
This tradition continued well into the modern era, with Liberty native Wally Moon achieving local hero status after breaking in with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1954. To this day, remnants of the early card scene can still be found within the historical records of Liberty. The pioneering efforts of the Smith family helped spread the joys of baseball card collecting across the region from the sport’s earliest days. In the process, they cemented Liberty as an unexpected hub for what would become a billion-dollar industry.
