In 1974 my Grandfather lived in the Soldiers home in Washington DC. On our visits we would visit the Smithsonian often and also make time for other historic sites. One day we visit the Library of Congress. Now my Mom was a Librarian so I knew my way around a Library. But I also knew that Librarians knew alot more about what was there than me. I stumbled upon some catalog referances for baseball cards. So I ask the Librarian about them and I am informed if I make an appointment and bring my Mom or Dad I can see parts of their
Baseball card collection.
So as He is telling me this I realize most kids who ask this question are unable to convince one of their parents to make an appointment and give up a day visiting Washington DC. To sit in a room looking at Baseball cards with their kid. He didn't know my Dad had been bitten by the Card collectors bug over a year ago. So we make appointment.
We are shown to a desk in a fairly large room and the Librarian in charge asks us if we have a request form filled out. I do and he looks it over and quickly noticed we were there to look at Baseball cards. And he was thrilled with this says not many ask, but he loves bringing them out. We see albums containing t cards e cards r300's nice but nothing over the top. He suggested we fill out a form requesting the Old Judge Baseball Subjects. I do and he comes back with a cart full of boxes and albums. I open the first and my Dad and I realize that these are sheet after sheet of Old judge proofs. A single page would typically be of a team with each team member having a few different poses. It was Baseball card overload. We looked for teams like NY Giants and Detroit and spent hours going over how crisp and clear the sheets were. Never thinking to document!... we just enjoyed ourselves. And on top of sheets were boxes of N173's. Imagine sitting at a table at 14 Covered in Old Judge sheets and N173's. One thing we did discover was that it seemed each year teams were photographed. In other words were found NY Giant sheets from different years as we went through the boxes. The Librarian bought out a few other Baseball treasures but the OJ sheets were what stuck. My Dad and I talked about that afternoon many times. Saying unless you went you couldn't even imagine it.
Now to my point I don't know if it is possible to fully catalog every OJ that was issued. I understand that a number of these sheets were stolen over the next few years. So I am not sure that they were ever fully cataloged. There is one known Pacific Coast OJ. My experience tells me that the team was photographed and multiple poses so how only one issued? It seems likely that as time goes on at least a few more unknown OJ 's will pop up. And I am sad we lost the chance to catalog the proofs in their complete state.
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