Discussion Topic & Your Opinions: What is the first baseball card

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by drcy

during the civil war era CDVs of popular subjects and famous people were commercially sold to and popularly collected by the public. Lots of people collected CDVs of Lincoln, Queen Victoria, Robert E. Lee, Broadway actors and actresses et al, and it is conceivable a CDV of a big baseball team or star player would be available as a collectible. Charles Dickens and other famous people sent CDVs of themselves to fans who wrote to them.

Exactly as I saw it. the Fredricks 'Specialite' CDVs I fastened on as the first boxing cards were part of a line of cards made expressly for sale at the photographer's gallery of images. Many of the photographers of the day paid celebrities to sit for them so they could make cards to sell to the public, as Fredricks did.

The N167 was definitely one of the first, if not the first, product insert card. But I'd not limit the definition of 'card' in a way that requires insertion with a product because there were so many other forms of card, like the Peck & Snyder, that are either cards predating N167 or not cards at all.

It is an interesting conundrum. Way more interesting that the contract I'm avoiding working on by loitering here.