Old Mill Baseball Cards: A Brief History of Early Trading Cards
Baseball cards have been around for over 150 years, delighting collectors and fostering the growth of the sport through their depictions of players and teams. Some of the earliest baseball cards were produced in the late 1860s by tobacco companies as promotional items inserted into packs of cigarettes and chewing tobacco. The trading card craze really took off in the late 1880s through the early 20th century with the rise of print technology and mass production capabilities. This era between the late 1800s through the early 1900s is considered the Golden Age of baseball card production and saw many iconic card sets released, with the most significant early producers being tobacco companies like Allen & Ginter, American Tobacco Company, and Goodwin & Company.
Allen & Ginter is often credited with producing the first modern baseball trading cards in 1886 as a premium insert in their cigarette packs. Their 1886-1887 set featured over 100 individual cards of famous ballplayers and other celebrities/public figures of the time period. This helped introduce the concept of trading cards to a wider mainstream audience and kickstarted their widespread popularity. In 1888, Goodwin & Company released their Champions of the Baseball Field set, notable for being the earliest dedicated baseball card issue. Meanwhile, the American Tobacco Company began inserting cards in their products starting in 1890. These early cigarette card inserts helped drive demand for tobacco products while also serving as educational tools to promote baseball players and statistics to new generations of fans.
As the 19th century drew to a close, the heyday of tobacco industry-issued cards was underway. Allen & Ginter continued producing memorable baseball sets in the late 1880s and early 1890s like their 1888 to 1891 issues. It was the release of the famous T206 set by American Tobacco in 1907-1911 that marked the true apex of tobacco era baseball cards. Numbering over 500 individual cards featuring almost every prominent player of the era over multiple series, the T206 set revolutionized card design and production values. With their colorful photo portraits and statistical details on the back, these graded gems still command enormous prices on the collector market over a century later.
During this period from the 1880s through the early 1900s, many regional and specialty card manufacturers besides just the major tobacco companies also entered the fray. Firms like Goodwin, Mayo Cut Plug, Phenomenal Basketball Companies, and White Stockings issued local or niche baseball sets targeted towards their specific regions or cigarette/tobacco consumers. In 1890, the Allen & Ginter company even tried a unique experiment by outsourcing some of their cards to be hand-drawn lithographs instead of photographs for one of their sets. These early “miller” issues helped feed growing baseball card demand before standardized mass production entirely took over.
By the early 1910s, the lucrative tobacco premium market began facing antitrust scrutiny and tighter regulation as insert cards were seen as a means of enticing youth into tobacco use. In response, many cigarette companies like American Tobacco quietly phased out new card issues and focused production on other premium items instead. This decline in tobacco inserts opened the door for independent card producers to take over the baseball card industry.
Two “mill” card firms that stepped up during this transition period were the Exhibit Supply Company and Millbrook Manufacturing & Lithographing Company. Based in New York/Pennsylvania, Exhibit Supply issued regional sets in 1909 and 1911 highlighting minor league teams. Meanwhile, Millbrook Productions of Millbrook, New York released single cards and small series between 1911-1916 with a similar focus on amateur/semi-pro ballplayers.
Being small operations outside the major tobacco conglomerates, Millbrook’s cards are considered some of the earliest true “non-tobacco” baseball cards. They utilized simple chromolithographic printing on inexpensive stock paper rather than premium boards like their cigarette predecessors. Despite their crude production, Millbrook cards remain highly popular with collectors today due to their rarity and status as a bridge between tobacco issues and the modern non-premium card era. Sets they produced include 1911 Millbrook Independents, 1911 Millbrook Jamestown Professionals, 1911 Ramapo Indians, and 1913 Leatherstocking Baseball Club among others.
These early independent “mill” card producers helped keep the baseball card phenomenon alive at a transitional stage when tobacco companies began stepping back. They ensured continued availability of baseball cards on store shelves for both children and adults to enjoy through the 1910s before the rise of dedicated sport card manufacturers in the following decades. Though not as ornately crafted as the tobacco giants’ golden age issues, Exhibit Supply and Millbrook cards provide a unique window into the grassroots development of the early baseball card collecting craze. Their imprints helped solidify this fledgling pastime and lay important groundwork for the immense popularity of baseball cards that continues over a century later.
