How Baseball Cards Were Made in the 19th Century
 

I have loved the game of baseball (and cards!) since I was little. Nothing has captivated me quite like it. Well ... maybe when I first learned of dinosaurs. I guess that's why 19th century baseball - and its artifacts intrigue me so much. Each time I learn something from that time period, I savor it. Doing an "online archaeological dig" brings up many things about the sport I love so much that I never knew about. The online community is captivated by the likes of Trout, Acuna and Soto, but many cannot name a single player from before 1900 ... in fact, many would be shocked to hear that baseball was even around back then! (Fun fact: baseball was *thriving* during the Civil War!)

http://mycollectionofcards.com/baseb...0/civilwar.gif

The flavor of 19th century baseball seems to get lost to time because we simply don't have much to go by. We don't have video or even radio recordings of games. We can never hear King Kelly's thick Irish accent, but we can probably find pictures of Andrew McCutchen eating a sandwich yesterday. We can't observe a recording of what the first home run in baseball history was like, but we know it was hit by Ross Barnes. In a previous article I wrote, "Before there were Baseball Cards", I talked about what woodcuts are and how they were created. Extremely interesting stuff! Here is a woodcut from 1874 that depicts Ross Barnes.**There aren't really any baseball cards of him, so it is great to be able to see him make an appearance here! This woodcut also depicts some true pioneers of baseball: Harry Wright, George Wright and A.G. Spalding.

https://tanmanbaseballfan.com/wp-con...05/barnes2.jpg

Pictures are few and far between of baseball players from this time period.

I guess all of that is what intrigues me so much. It is the birth of our beloved sport, and I am fascinated by how we got to where we are today. My passion is matched with a feeling of duty to share what I've learned. I feel like I have some sort of inside information that could really knock the socks off of baseball fans and baseball card collectors alike.

WHEN A PICTURE REALLY WAS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

The 1870s was the beginning of the explosion of beautiful chromolithography (color lithographs) in America. Up until that point, you didn't see much that was man-made that blended colors together. Children and adults alike would collect "trade cards" (advertisements from baking soda to medicine to ... you name it!) which would typically be full color advertisements, and oftentimes die cut. This technology gave birth to the first color baseball cards in the 1880's. Allen & Ginter and Goodwin were among the most popular.

https://tanmanbaseballfan.com/wp-con...20/05/kids.jpg

1880's America was a perfect breeding ground for the birth of baseball cards. Between the color printing explosion, trade card collecting, and America going wild over baseball, baseball cards were the perfect collectible to produce and include in packages of cigarettes. Everyone was dying to get their hands on a picture card of their favorite baseball player, because many had never seen the likeness of their heroes before.

Think about that for a second. Baseball cards were the connection for many to be able to put faces with names. These cards were *loved*. They were cherished without any regard for making sure corners weren't damaged/bent, and many times, would be glued to album pages for safe keeping. For people who care very little about back damage (such as myself) this gluing act was the saving grace for today's collectors who mainly care about the condition of the fronts.

I think this is something we take for granted. Today, we can get on our phones, and watch full baseball games in HD. We can keep in touch with the players by following them on Twitter and have a glut of high resolution images of any given player at our fingertips. We can even go back to see many old timers in action like Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. Baseball and baseball card collecting have become fully immersive. When it comes to 19th century baseball, everything was different.* Not a single person on the planet living today can say they have experienced a 19th century baseball game. Without video or audio, baseball cards from this time period play a key role in keeping the history of our game and hobby alive in a way that written words cannot.

HOW BASEBALL CARDS WERE MADE

In my opinion, there has never been a better time to collect baseball cards. We have the latest & greatest technology being used and a TON of options! Take a look at what Topps has been doing over the past several years with its Allen & Ginter line. Mini framed red ink autographs, stained glass cards, rip cards (cards that you rip with mini cards in them), metal cards and even framed silk cards. Does it get any better than this?

http://mycollectionofcards.com/baseb.../052920/ag.jpg

It does - glow in the dark cards! How can you not love this stuff?

http://mycollectionofcards.com/baseb...52920/glow.gif

Over the years, I've tried my hand at a few Allen & Ginter customs of my favorite player. You may have seen these before, but I figured I'd show them again ...

Here is a card I made entirely out of a player-worn jersey:

http://mycollectionofcards.com/baseb...920/jersey.jpg

This card was made entirely out of a game used bat (and signed!) ...

http://mycollectionofcards.com/baseb...ameusedbat.jpg

I even made Jose CanLego ...

http://mycollectionofcards.com/baseb...2920/lego1.jpg

Speaking of Allen & Ginter, what many don't know is that the original company far predates Topps. Distributed in 1888, Allen & Ginter was one of the first nationally available baseball cards ever. I suspect their beauty is the reason Topps revived the brand and design in 2006 - well over 100 years since the originals came out. The design is so simplistically stunning, that the brand has thrived every year since 2006, with minimal design changes, and remains one of the most popular releases from year to year. People may be confused why some of the cards will depict designs with palm fronds, or players posing outside in nature. That is a direct call back to the cards of the 19th century, which of course, was heavily influenced by Victorian era art.

While many of the newer quirky cards shown above are fun, the base cards nowadays and back then look similar. However, there is a stark difference between how the cards are made now, and how they were made back in the 19th century . The process is called chromolithography. Shown in the picture below, is a print shop from 1874. In short, an artist would create an image, then a lithographer would replicate the image on a slab of limestone. (Each shade/color would need its own limestone.) After the artwork is applied to the limestones, they would be treated so the areas not showing any art would repel ink. Only the art itself would retain ink. After ink is applied to the limestone, it would be impressed upon paper. Each color/shade would need to be impressed on the paper until a full color image appears. The picture below shows various people working the various steps I just described.

https://tanmanbaseballfan.com/wp-con...0/05/prang.jpg

Shown below is a neat six card set created over 30 years after the picture above was produced, so while the techniques may be a bit more detailed and advanced than what was used to create the original Allen & Ginter and Goodwin baseball cards from the 19th century, it does illustrate some important steps. This set is ingenious because it shows the actual lithographic steps "in progress" in the portrait. Each card shows what the chromolithographic portrait looks like pass after pass.

http://mycollectionofcards.com/baseb...20/liebig2.jpg

As you can see from the picture and card set above, there was a lot of human interaction and effort involved in creating these little works of art we call 19th century baseball cards.

I've shown it before, but here is my set. The colors are beautiful, and the fronts look pack fresh, but the backs have some damage to them, due to having been glued in an album for over a century.

https://tanmanbaseballfan.com/wp-con...20/03/ns28.jpg

Recently, I've been fortunate enough to pick up "the rest of the story" and acquire an Allen & Ginter album that was also created using chromolithography. Each page is bound together by a thin rope. It is fun to see how much care was taken to create this, and also, what my Allen & Ginter set could have been glued to. Shown below is the cover and a few pages inside:

http://mycollectionofcards.com/baseb...2920/album.jpg

Yes, even Joseph Ducreaux a.k.a. The Old Planter a.k.a. the creepy Allen & Ginter guy makes a few appearances in the album, too. Look familiar?

http://mycollectionofcards.com/baseb...513_090124.jpg

Having both the set and the album is nice to have a more complete picture of what was available to our hobby's first cardboard crack addicts over 130 years ago. The album colors and artwork are simply stunning.

Speaking of stunning lithography, Goodwin came out with its own full color set too, which I have as well.

http://mycollectionofcards.com/baseb...20/goodwin.jpg

I appreciate all of these so much more after knowing*what great lengths they took to create them. There is no holographic foil, no signatures, game used pieces or serial numbers, but I would highly recommend one of your next purchases being a 19th century baseball card. There is just something special about holding something that is both history and art. Something that took a tremendous amount of effort to produce by hand, and was done so in a time before television, radio and the internet were used to document the players. Anyone with a printer and the internet can find a high resolution scan of these and simply print them out, but the originals have an incredible story of art and history to tell - a story that marks them as instrumental tools for keeping 19th century baseball alive and giving us a taste for what our hobby was like back then, at the beginning.

http://mycollectionofcards.com/baseb...602_141339.jpg

Stay tuned - in the next week or so, I'll be writing about what is considered to be the most premium baseball issue ever to have been offered from the 19th century - and some custom work to go along with them!

https://tanmanbaseballfan.com/2020/0...h-century.html

Thanks. Interesting read and appreciate the pictures. And may I say that those are some of the best Grade 10 Allen and Ginter I have ever seen.

I enjoyed your post very much. I share your passion for 19th century baseball. It's also nice to see mention of Ross Barnes. He's one of my main collecting interests, having been born in my hometown. Here's one of the teams he played on. It's too bad his career ended before baseball cards flourished in the late 1880s. I can see him on an N162 or N28, N29.

Fantastic post!

I didn’t realize that they used several stones for each card. I assume one for each color but I see several shades of brown on a baseball bat, for example. A different stone for each shade as well?

Wow what a fantastic read! Thank you!

Awesome read. I am a history buff (was my major in college), and I love baseball history so much. I can't afford anything of the 1800s stuff and can barely afford much of the 1900s stuff. But I enjoy looking at it. Love the history of this game.

Superb!

Grade post and let's all hope that one day TPGs will learn that most 19th century cards were hand collated.

Thank you all for the comments so far! Specific responses below ...

Thank you! Getting the entire set was a big deal for me (they came with the 40 others as well, but I sold them because I only care about baseball) - and they were all beautiful. The only real damage was to the backs!

I agree! There are so many guys I would have loved to have seen in N28/N162/N172 form. Thanks for posting that pic - that piece is truly remarkable!

There is a publication named "Prang's Prize Babies - How this picture is made." Here is a link to show the steps: https://gigi.mwa.org/netpub/server.n...ing=1&offset=0 - it shows there being 19 colors ... and in the text that they have even used 45 stones to create one lithograph. I always thought it was 4 or so. I'd love to know how many were used for the cards. As for the term "shade", I know I read it somewhere, but cannot place it. The link above does help illustrate how cumbersome it must have been.

What a great read Tanner!

I love your custom cards and I'll never forget reading about your trip to meet Canseco at his home!

Classic stuff!

Thank you Lou! It is crazy to think that the 5 year anniversary mark just passed from going to Jose's house. I love thinking back to what all happened :)

Great post!

They used as many colors as they needed, or as many as the customer would pay for. Many areas were patches of solid color. The dots similar to our modern halftones were done by hand, so the person doing that had a lot of control over the way it looked. Dark brown fading to light could be simply light brown with a tighter then looser pattern of dots that got smaller and farther apart. Or it could be Something similar over 2-4 patches of brown that get lighter.

You can usually pick out the colors looking with a good magnifier.

Most stuff I see was 6-8 colors, maybe a bit more or a bit less. (I sort of collect tradecards too) 45 would be a piece made to show off what the printer could do. Keeping that many colors all in registration was work for a real master. I don't think the art places still doing lithography that way even get close to that.

Thanks for sharing. I still have your website on Canseco on my cell phone. Every now and then I scroll through. 5,177 Canseco cards. Amazing!

That was a fun informative read, thanks for posting

Amazing read, Tanner. Thanks for posting! Those customs are so creative.

Wow, great article!! Thanks!

As always, thank you everyone!

I am still in learning mode when it comes to all of this myself. I heard that the "stippling" was done by hand, but wonder ... wasn't all of it done by hand? Or perhaps they transfer to the stone and then do the stippling by hand on stone as opposed to relying upon the transfer. Any light you could shed on this for me would be appreciated! Also ... do you have any ideas how many stones may have been used for the A&G and Goodwin cards? I'd love to hear that as well!

Thanks! I scroll from time to time also :) Mainly I just have it up for a reference for everyone else, but I also go through it to see if there are any I'd like to try and get back. When I got back into it, I decided to do an entire base/base insert run and eventually got into picking up high end cards I wanted as well.

A couple weeks back, I decided to sell my base/base insert run, because I just never looked through them in the binders. I currently have about 250 Canseco cards (plus a binder of some base that someone gave me a few weeks ago that I keep in my closet) - but the 250 represents about 5% of what I used to have, but I am more satisfied with them now than I was when I had "everything". I can now really appreciate the special cards instead of always going after the next card I don't have.

I can't fathom keeping that many colors in registration.

Different printing process, but there are still screen shops testing their limits to create fine art. Here's a modern 21 screen print that is widely praised by collectors of this genre.