The History of Wood Baseball Cards

Wood baseball cards have an interesting history dating back over 120 years. Unlike the paper cards of the modern era, early baseball cards were often printed on thin pieces of wood, giving them their name. These vintage wood cards provide a fascinating window into the early years of professional baseball in America.

The first known wood cards were issued in the late 1880s as promotions for cigarette and tobacco brands. Companies like Goodwin and Company began including illustrated wood cards featuring baseball players in their tobacco products. Often measuring about 2 inches by 3 inches, these wooden promotional items served as an early form of baseball card. Goodwin is credited with issuing the first extensive wood baseball card sets in 1886 and 1887.

Players depicted on 1880s wood cards included stars of the day like Bob Caruthers, Tim Keefe, and Cap Anson. The simple illustrations were printed onto thin pieces of basswood using crude lithography techniques. Information included on early wood cards was minimal, usually just listing the player’s first name and team. Sets from Goodwin and other tobacco brands of the era totaled only around 50 cards or less.

In the 1890s, several tobacco companies significantly expanded their wood baseball card offerings. Starting in 1891, Allen & Ginter began including illustrated wood cards in their most popular brands like Sweet Caporal cigarettes. Their wood card sets featured over 200 different players from both major leagues. Candy manufacturer American Tobacco also got into the wood card business around this time.

The quality and size of 1890s wood cards improved over the first generation. Measuring roughly 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches, the larger wood pieces allowed for bigger portraits and more notable details. Information provided on the reverse expanded to include full names, brief career stats, and sometimes even short biographies of prominent stars. Technological advancements allowed for vivid multi-color lithographed images on the cards as well.

Sets from Allen & Ginter and American Tobacco in the mid-1890s are considered some of the most coveted issues of wood cards. Extremely rare individual cards featuring legends like Cy Young, Cap Anson, and Kid Nichols have sold at auction for well over $100,000 each. Finding a complete wood card set from this era in good condition would be nearly impossible. Most wood cards were meant to be smoked, spat out, and eventually destroyed.

The golden age of wood baseball cards lasted through the turn of the 20th century. Companies continued cranking out larger sets with more sophisticated portraits well into the early 1900s. In total, quality wood card sets seemed to peak around 1894-1904 before starting to decline. By the 1910s, paper cards had fully eclipsed wood as the prevailing baseball card medium. The last widely distributed wood card set is thought to have been issued by Ogden around 1910.

While paper cards allowed for easier storage and preservation, wood cards have the advantage of withstanding the test of time much better than their fragile cigarette predecessors. Examples from the early tobacco era dating back 130+ years can still be found in mint condition today. The hardness of the woodironically helped protect fragile ink images within the layers. Authentic vintage wood cards are highly prized by serious baseball memorabilia collectors.

In the modern day, reprints of antique wood card images have been marketed by manufacturers to recapture some of the nostalgia and mystique of the original tobacco cards. Only the genuine wood artifacts issued between the 1880s-1910s hold significant monetary and historical value. At auction, top examples can rival or surpass even the most desirable early paper T206 tobacco cards in price.

Wood cards remain one of the most iconic relics charting the early development of professional baseball. As the first true baseball card formats, they established traditions that would carry forward into the golden age of paper collectibles. Through innovative tobacco marketing in the late 19th century, wood cards helped solidify baseball’s fan following nationwide and documented the sport’s transition from amateur to professional level. Their fragile wooden substrates may not have withstood the test of time as well as paper. The images they preserved continue captivating collectors over a century later with their portal into America’s pastime in its infancy.