The early history of baseball card brands is steeped in nostalgia for many collectors and fans. Some of the most iconic baseball card brands from the late 19th and early 20th century played a pivotal role in growing the hobby and promoting the national pastime. While today’s memorabilia market is dominated by just a handful of modern manufacturers, the golden age of baseball cards saw dozens of companies vying for shelf space in candy stores, tobacco shops, and druggists across America.
One of the earliest and most prolific producers was the American Tobacco Company. Formed in 1890, American Tobacco carved out a virtual monopoly in the U.S. tobacco industry within a decade. Looking for new marketing opportunities, the company began including premiums—typically small advertisements or photographs—inside cigarette and chewing tobacco packages starting in the 1880s. In 1886, American Tobacco issued what is considered the first modern baseball card set promoting the Chicago White Stockings (later known as the Cubs). Over the next 15 years, several of their cigarette and cigar brands like Sweet Caporal, Gypsy Queen, and Allen & Ginter issued some of the most beloved vintage card series featuring early stars like Cy Young, Honus Wagner and Nap Lajoie.
While American Tobacco set the template, other major tobacco firms soon entered the baseball card business. The Goodwin & Company, known for their Old Judge brand, distributed sets promoting the National League and American Association in the late 1880s. Also gaining popularity were sets inserted in packages of Buckeye and Bam tobacco from The Kaub Cigar & Tobacco Company of St. Louis starting in 1890. Perhaps the most iconic early baseball card brand was the Baltimore-based manufacturer of Fatima Cigarettes and Piedmont Cigarettes. Issues under those labels in the early 1900s are highly prized by collectors today for featuring some of the first action shots of players.
As baseball’s popularity exploded at the turn of the 20th century, so too did the number of regional tobacco brands churning out baseball cards. In the early 1900s, sets were produced under brands like Elkwood Tobacco out of Richmond, VA, Sweet Sixteen Tobacco out of Lincoln, Nebraska and various distributors along the East Coast like Saluda Tobacco of South Carolina and San Felice Cigars of New York City. While most were only regionally distributed and short-lived, they helped grow the sport’s grassroots appeal. Sets from York Tobacco Company of York, Pennsylvania in 1909 are especially collectible for their color lithographed images of star players in home and road uniforms.
The most dominant brand of the 1910s came courtesy of E111even, the makers of Murad Cigarettes. Between 1910-1914, Murad issued over a dozen very high quality, nationally distributed sets that are considered some of the most beautiful vintage cards ever produced. Their intricate colorful designs and dynamic posed action shots made Murad an instant hit with both players and fans alike. While tobacco firms still ruled, general novelty companies like Bazooka Candy and Chiclets Gum began experimenting with baseball cards included in gum and candy packages as premiums in the 1910s as well.
As the 1920s rolled around, tobacco sponsorship of baseball cards evolved again. Bowman Gum began including baseball cards in packs of gum in 1929, launching a brand that would last for decades. Firms like American Caramel started distributing cards with caramel products. But the new leader was the landmark brand Goudey Gum Company. Issuing their incredibly popular and iconic 1933 Goudey set marked a transition era where cards moved from tobacco promotional items to general market confections and collectibles. Goudey’s beautifully designed high quality cards of the 1930s are today amongst the most coveted and valuable vintage issues.
Through World War II, card production was disrupted but regional firms like Diamond Match Company of Chicago soldiered on with their Play Ball series in the early 1940s. As the post-war boom took off, Bowman and Topps Chewing Gum emerged as the dominant national brands through iconic sets like 1952 Topps and 1955 Bowman. As the 1950s rolled on, over-production led to a market crash temporarily ending the golden age of baseball cards. Through the 1960s and 1970s, Topps remained essentially the sole producer of modern cardboard until rival brands like Fleer and Donruss entered the fray in the 1980s.
Today, just a handful of corporate parent companies dominate baseball card production. But for older collectors and those seeking a connection to nostalgia of cards past, the regional tobacco firms of the late 1800s and turn of the century branded sets retain a magic all their own. From the artistic designs to the pioneering early photography, these long vanished brands helped establish baseball card collecting as a popular American hobby with an incredible history stretching back well over 100 years. As more vintage gems are preserved and new archival research is done, the lost legacy of early baseball card manufacturers continues coming into sharper historical focus.
