The early history of baseball cards revolves around tobacco products, with companies like Allen & Ginter and Old Judge inserting card images of baseball players and other interesting subjects into cigarette packs and cigar boxes beginning in the late 1880s. Prior to the rise of tobacco cards, there existed another type of early baseball card known as leather and lumber cards.
Leather and lumber cards date back to the earliest days of professional baseball in the 1860s and 1870s. Like tobacco cards that would later become popular, leather and lumber cards served as a form of advertising and promotion for the businesses that printed them. Instead of being included with tobacco purchases, leather and lumber cards were given out by local merchants, sporting goods stores, bat and ball manufacturers, and other companies associated with baseball and the emerging professional leagues.
The cards were typically printed on thick cardboard stock, but some of the earliest examples from the 1860s were printed directly onto leather or chunks of wood to truly represent being made from “leather and lumber.” This helped establish the name that collectors still use today to describe this era and type of baseball card. Like tobacco cards, the front of a leather and lumber card would feature an image of a ballplayer, team, or baseball-related subject. Information like the player’s position and team was often included as well. On the back, the producing company would advertise their goods or services.
Some of the earliest known leather and lumber cards featured star players from the 1860s like Jim Creighton, Albert Spalding, and George Wright. Bat makers like H.J. Baker and F.C. Hillerich were among the companies printing and distributing early cards to promote their brands. Cities like Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Boston had local merchants and sporting goods shops distributing cards of hometown players and teams.
While tobacco cards boomed in the late 1880s, leather and lumber cards remained common from amateur youth leagues all the way through the minor and major professional leagues of the mid-to-late 1800s. They helped spread awareness of players, teams, and the growing popularity of the sport across the country before baseball had truly reached national fame. During this period, the cards also helped companies promote themselves as outfitters for players and teams.
From the 1870s through the early 1890s when tobacco cards completely took over the market, thousands of leather and lumber cards were produced, distributed, and collected by early baseball fans. Very few examples from the earliest 1860s leather and wood years still survive today in collectible condition given their fragile nature. Even cards from the 1870s are exceedingly rare finds for dedicated collectors. Later leather and lumber cards from the 1880s and 1890s featuring great players like Cap Anson, Jesse Burkett, and Amos Rusie can sometimes sell for thousands of dollars when in pristine condition.
Leather and lumber cards represent an important, yet often overlooked, early period in the history of baseball cards. They helped spread information about the growing professional game during baseball’s formative years before fully establishing itself as America’s national pastime. While tobacco cards are now the dominant baseball card category collected, finding and preserving the few remaining examples of rare 1860s-1890s leather and lumber cards allows collectors and historians to better understand the grassroots promotion and publicity methods used in early professional baseball’s development. Their namesake advertising medium may now be obsolete, but leather and lumber cards remain an integral part of understanding how baseball cards first emerged as a way for companies to market the sport along with their associated businesses.
