Virtually each historic dialogue about baseball playing cards feeds the impression that, since baseball was such a wildly standard sport after the American Civil Conflict, some enterprising businessmen, most notably James Buchanan Duke, thought it will be a superb concept to start out placing playing cards with footage of baseball gamers in cigarette packs to promote extra tobacco. And voilà, we had baseball playing cards!
Did it actually occur that method? Or are we so conditioned by our modern curiosity and private experiences with baseball playing cards that we fail to notice an even bigger image? Let’s step again and take a broader take a look at only one section of playing cards and the place they got here from. Our journey goes to take us by way of Philadelphia and the encircling space of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and some different locations. Alongside the best way we would uncover that baseball is usually about extra than simply baseball. And so are baseball playing cards!
In case you are accustomed to Jefferson Burdick and his card classification system, you understand that E-cards are outlined as “Early Sweet and Gum Playing cards”—people who got here with packages of confectionary merchandise within the early 1900s.
Right here’s a bunch of those early sweet and gum playing cards. They signify nearly 1 / 4 of all of the E-classified card units. As you’ll be able to see, you need to hunt for these associated to baseball. There are actresses and actors, American Indians, troopers, flags, birds and animals, ships, planes, boxing, boy scouts, jockeys, presidents, well-known buildings, and extra.
Jeff Burdick’s lifelong venture to trace down and catalog playing cards put into perspective what number of completely different card topics there really had been. Take into consideration life when these playing cards began popping out. Nobody owned a automobile. Nobody had electrical energy. Airplanes hadn’t been invented. Radio didn’t exist. There have been no film theaters. Newspapers didn’t have footage. Most kids stopped college earlier than age fourteen. And folks didn’t journey. In a world earlier than the web, earlier than tv, earlier than books with footage, earlier than encyclopedias existed, and when few individuals ever obtained greater than fifty miles from the place they had been born, playing cards that got here with merchandise had been the most typical method for a lot of people to see individuals, locations, and issues from world wide—issues they in any other case may need by no means recognized about.
Thankfully for us, baseball was standard sufficient to be included among the many subjects that folks discovered attention-grabbing in the course of the time commerce card advertising was flourishing. Of 154 units of E-cards cataloged by Burdick, 42 had baseball playing cards. If we drop all of the non-baseball playing cards from our first image, we’re left with a a lot much less crowded discipline.
Burdick collected 303,000 playing cards earlier than he died in 1963. Fewer than 10%, about 30,000, had been baseball playing cards. Chances are you’ll know that SABR honors individuals who’ve “made significant contributions to the baseball card hobby” with the Jefferson Burdick Award. The irony is it’s believed Burdick by no means attended an expert baseball sport. However his classification system included baseball playing cards which, of all the opposite playing cards made, have turn out to be hottest with collectors, largely initiated by the notoriety of 1 specifically.
It’s attention-grabbing that this little acknowledged 1903 Breisch-Williams E107 Wagner is ten instances rarer, with solely 5 ever submitted for authentication. And it’s one of many playing cards we’re speaking about right here.
Baseball playing cards have been round nearly so long as we’ve had baseball. Each are woven into American tradition. When boomers had been children they obtained gum with a pack of playing cards. Their fathers obtained a single card after they purchased a bundle of gum. Earlier than that, playing cards got here with sweet. Within the early 1900s it was largely caramel however sweets and chewing gum didn’t wait lengthy to hop on the bandwagon.
So, let’s take a look at how the sweet card factor obtained began. In the 1880s and 90s, use of trading cards was common in tobacco products. Amongst these had been baseball playing cards, however the preferred playing cards had been really of actresses—with seductive poses and in clothes that was fairly revealing and by requirements of that point.
It was widespread follow for boys, some fairly younger, to bug males popping out of tobacco retailers for the playing cards of their cigarette packs, together with baseball and the “girlie” playing cards. Due to this the U.S. Congress included banning all image playing cards from being packaged in tobacco merchandise made after 1899 within the Dingley Tariff Act of 1897. There had been just a few early makes an attempt to bundle playing cards in sweet and gum however the Inexperienced & Blackwell Firm had made the final, short-lived, try to advertise their G&B Gum with baseball playing cards in 1888.
The Dingley Act basically ended manufacturing of all playing cards, together with baseball playing cards, on the finish of the nineteenth century. When the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909 eased the restrictions on playing cards in tobacco merchandise, corporations within the American Tobacco Belief once more began placing playing cards of their cigarettes and free tobacco. Playing cards with many subjects and topics instantly reemerged in tobacco packs, the illustrious T206 baseball sequence amongst them. However, from 1900 to 1909, with tobacco corporations unable to place playing cards of their merchandise, a buying and selling card void was created.
Aristotle taught us that nature abhors a vacuum. When tobacco corporations couldn’t make baseball and different buying and selling playing cards another person would. Two confectioners who had labored for Milton Hershey thought they had been simply the blokes. George Williams and Frederick Breisch had simply purchased the Oxford Caramel Manufacturing facility, simply west of Philadelphia in Oxford, Pennsylvania in 1898. The enterprise was referred to as the Breisch-Williams Firm. In 1901 they started placing footage of troopers from world wide of their “Military Caramels.” Jefferson Burdick appropriately gave these playing cards catalog quantity E1.
Then in 1903, at a time when the nation consisted of simply forty-five states, Breisch-Williams created the primary baseball playing cards of the twentieth century. Like their military playing cards, they had been additionally inserted in packages of caramel sweet. Collectors know them by their American Card Catalog designation, E107. And, included in that set is the not often seen Honus Wagner card proven earlier on this article.
Over half of all E-cards bought in America had been issued by corporations clustered round Philadelphia and positioned in a 60 mile strip between York, PA and Camden, NJ. All collectively there are 49 baseball E-card units, which had been distributed between 1903 and 1933. Beginning with the Breisch-Williams E107 playing cards, 25 of those baseball units could be produced inside that brief stretch in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Of the opposite 24 baseball units, 21 got here from corporations all through the remainder of the nation whereas 3 are from places unknown.
What can probably clarify how one small space in Southeastern Pennsylvania produced so most of the sweet and gum playing cards firstly of the twentieth century?
Quickly after Breisch-Williams began placing playing cards in caramel produced at their Oxford, Pennsylvania sweet manufacturing unit in 1901, different native opponents started doing the identical factor to stay aggressive. Most of those corporations launched different topics first after which progressed into baseball playing cards. In 1908 an nameless firm that wasn’t enterprise savvy sufficient to place their title on the playing cards however considered in Philadelphia, made E102 baseball playing cards. And, that yr the quick rising American Caramel Firm in Lancaster, was placing baseball playing cards inside their packages.
By 1909, extra baseball playing cards had been included with merchandise from American Caramel and different corporations had been following swimsuit, together with: Croft & Allen in Philadelphia; Montague & Firm which was packaging Croft’s Cocoa; and Philadelphia Caramel, which had simply moved throughout the Delaware river to Camden, New Jersey. Jay S. Meyer, in Philadelphia, launched a intelligent sweet bundle that yr that appeared like a digicam containing two baseball participant playing cards on the top flaps. Whereas it’s cataloged as W555, most agree these are early sweet and gum playing cards. By this time, the most important sweet maker of all, Milton Hershey, was additionally utilizing playing cards for promotion, however Hershey’s firm by no means made baseball themed playing cards.
Lastly baseball playing cards started to emerge from sweet and gum corporations in different elements of the nation. John Dockman & Sons in Baltimore, simply fifty miles south of York, Pennsylvania had printed crude drawings of gamers on the skin of their “All Star Base-Ball Package deal” gummy sweet containers in 1906, however they transitioned to placing baseball playing cards contained in the field in 1909. That very same yr sweet corporations in Louisville, Boston, and St. Louis began to bundle playing cards of their sweet and gum merchandise.
In 1910 American Caramel added much more units of themed playing cards, together with baseball playing cards. Philadelphia Caramel additionally made a number of new units of insert playing cards, together with baseball. Commonplace Caramel in Lancaster, Pennsylvania added baseball playing cards to their advertising system that yr. Williams Caramel, an offshoot of Breisch-Williams, inserted playing cards, together with baseball. And by 1910, corporations in Virginia, Texas, and Los Angeles started adopting the advertising technique of together with playing cards, some which had been baseball units, as an added bonus. 
Between 1911 and 1916, corporations in San Francisco and Chicago joined in. Most notably, a snack referred to as Cracker Jack… “with a toy in each pack.”
At first of “The Nice Conflict”, what we now name World Conflict I, rationing and skyrocketing sugar costs made sweet manufacturing troublesome. Many sweet makers couldn’t and didn’t survive. To chop prices, most confectioners went to a bare-bones operation. This meant completely no pointless bills, and no playing cards within the latter half of the nineteen-teens. However initially of the “Roaring Twenties”, with the financial system heating up, there was a sweet and gum card resurgence. Our buddies at American Caramel began pumping out card units – together with 5 devoted to baseball.
And new opponents in southeastern Pennsylvania—together with the York Caramel Firm, Nationwide Caramel Firm, Rittenhouse Sweet Firm, and Oxford Confectionary—all jumped in with card units of their merchandise, as did The Curtis Eire Sweet Company in St. Louis.
This map of the nation exhibits the place E-baseball card units listed within the American Card Catalog got here from.
The blue dots present the place 21 units originated. And, the small pink rectangular space exhibits the place the opposite 25 sweet and gum units got here from. Little data is understood about three corporations that distributed E-card units and their places haven’t been decided.
There will need to have been a purpose why so many early sweet and gum makers had been positioned on this key rectangle extending west from the Metropolis of Brotherly Love. To know that purpose, let’s step into Mr. Peabody’s wayback machine and set the dial for 1767—when America was nonetheless a part of the British Empire.
In 1767 the British Parliament positioned a heavy tax on tea within the American colonies. Discontent grew, resulting in what got here to be often called the Boston Tea Social gathering.
As phrase unfold there was a boycott on tea all through the colonies and American colonists began ingesting one other beverage… sizzling cocoa!
That was as a result of cocoa beans weren’t taxed since they got here into American transport facilities from the Caribbean relatively than by way of Britain. At the moment the inhabitants facilities within the American Colonies had been the important thing port cities of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia; with Philadelphia not simply the most important, but additionally the farthest south.
Ships that got here from England usually went into Boston or New York. However, the cargo ships which introduced virtually all the cocoa beans from the Caribbean largely went to the most important port of Philadelphia. As we speak, 80% of the cocoa beans coming into america nonetheless come by way of Philadelphia.
Demand for cocoa and crude chocolate continued to develop in recognition in the course of the late 18th century, partly due to three explicit guys in Philadelphia, who had been all named Benjamin. Benjamin Rush, a doctor in Philadelphia and, by the best way, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a continuing promoter of the well being advantages of chocolate. Benjamin Jackson, a Black man who owned the most important mustard mill in Philadelphia—and a store on Market Road—constructed a extremely profitable enterprise when he discovered he might additionally use his tools to course of cocoa beans and make chocolate. Ben Franklin bought cocoa from his print store as early as 1739 and he promoted it closely.
At the moment, cocoa was solely made into blocks that had been shaved to organize chocolate for ingesting. George Washington was such a chocolate fan that he ordered cocoa beans 50 kilos at a time.
Sugar was costly so, whereas it was utilized in small quantities to sweeten sizzling cocoa, chocolate sweet that we might acknowledge wouldn’t be made for an additional 100 years when sugar manufacturing grew and the refined product obtained cheaper. Cane molasses, the uncooked ingredient used to make sugar, got here from the Caribbean, identical to cocoa. So, as demand for sugar grew, Philadelphia grew to become the popular port for that substance as effectively. Sugar refineries started to spring up alongside Philadelphia’s west financial institution of the Delaware River. Whereas the locals, and people alongside the wagon roads to New York and Baltimore, loved their sizzling chocolate and used sugar for baking, most of Philadelphia’s refined sugar was loaded on ships destined for the European market.
Then one thing dramatic occurred and it will change the form of America without end. After the American Revolution, giant numbers of individuals started to maneuver westward, farther into the frontier. However there was no sensible option to ship giant portions of products to those individuals, and since this was an agrarian motion, there wasn’t a great way for farmers to get their crops and merchandise to east coast inhabitants facilities. So in 1821 the State of New York started building of the Erie Canal to hyperlink the coastal port of New York Metropolis to the Nice Lakes. When accomplished in 1825, it allowed mule and horse drawn barges to take items out and in of huge inside areas of the nation with New York Metropolis as the only jap terminus. When accomplished, it was the one option to transport giant a great deal of items from the coast into the inside of the nation.
As a aspect be aware, collectors with an curiosity in nineteenth century baseball associated commerce playing cards may pay attention to Service provider’s Gargling Oil playing cards. These playing cards had been a direct offshoot of the Erie Canal. Quickly after beasts of burden started pulling barges by way of the Erie Canal, Dr. George Service provider developed a liniment to deal with sick and lame animals. He referred to as it Service provider’s Gargling Oil. By savvy promoting, just like the playing cards proven right here, Service provider was promoting over 1,000,000 bottles of his product per yr by 1866. Indicators on these playing cards put their printing between 1865 and 1870.
However I digress. In a land targeted on enlargement, The Erie Canal gave New York Metropolis an enormous benefit over Philadelphia when it got here to delivering items to clients inside america. Pennsylvania couldn’t construct a canal reaching to the west as a result of the Appalachian Mountains had been simply to difficult. In order that they began building of the Pennsylvania Railroad, linking Philadelphia to Pittsburgh in 1848, with a plan to increase all through the nation from there.
Quickly Philadelphia grew to become the central rail hub for transport items all through your complete nation—not simply west, however north and south additionally. Originally of the 20th century, Pennsylvania surpassed all different states in railroad mileage. From Philadelphia, rail strains stretched north by way of New York and on to Boston, south by way of Baltimore and Washington, and west by way of Pittsburgh to Louisville, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and St. Louis. You may discover the connection to all the main league baseball cities at the moment.
This was the commercial age in america. With rail routes now open to main home markets, sugar manufacturing exploded at Pennsylvania’s refineries. By the top of the nineteenth century, a few of the largest sugar refineries on the planet had been positioned alongside the financial institution of the Delaware River in northeast Philadelphia. There was a dramatic drop in the price of sugar—and a growth in confectionary companies. By 1900, there have been 117 sweet producers within the Philadelphia space, supplying greater than 1000 sweet retailers.
The Franklin Sugar Refinery alone revamped 90% of America’s sugar.
The primary manufacturing candies had been molasses and caramel, each constructed from sugar or sugar byproducts. The caramel we now acknowledge was developed within the 1860s when milk was added.
Within the late nineteenth century, chocolate sweet was creating utilizing cocoa, sugar,… and milk! Most American sweet within the late 1800s was some type of “crème caramel”, and milk chocolate was being made by the Nineties.
Proper about now most of you might be questioning what any of this has to do with baseball playing cards. Hold on, it received’t be lengthy.
It doesn’t matter what you’re making, what’s necessary in choosing a producing location is: availability of uncooked materials, transportation prices, and a option to distribute and market completed merchandise to the last word customers. Keep in mind the place many of the corporations who gave us early baseball playing cards had been positioned. Now, check out the early Pennsylvania Railroad and its connections.
Whereas sugar and cocoa beans had been positioned in Philadelphia, recent milk wasn’t available there. It was out within the farm lands, within the rolling fields round Oxford, Lancaster, and York, an space good for elevating cows and dairy manufacturing. With no refrigeration on the time, it was simpler to maneuver giant portions of sugar and cocoa to the place milk was produced than to convey the milk into Philadelphia and use it earlier than it spoiled. The confectioners who largely made crème caramel and chocolate sweet positioned themselves within the outskirt dairy cities whereas those that largely produced sugar primarily based arduous sweet, gummies, and chewing gum most popular to function in Philadelphia. Relying on the merchandise a sweet maker needed to provide, the railroad made it attainable to convey the supplies collectively at an affordable value.
The railroad additionally made it attainable to distribute product on to the 8 largest markets in North America initially of the 20th century. It’s no shock to see how effectively these cities coincide with the enlargement of Main League Baseball in 1901.
So, we’ve a bunch of corporations that selected to find their sweet and gum manufacturing corporations in southeastern Pennsylvania on the daybreak of the 20th century. And we all know the manufacturing and transportation benefits of finding there. With so many corporations clustered collectively, it’s straightforward to grasp why, when Breisch-Williams started placing buying and selling playing cards of their packages of caramel, the fierce competitors led others to make use of the identical advertising technique. And, E-cards had been born.
Come again in a pair days for the second a part of this publish protecting the individuals and firms who produced these playing cards.
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