1866 Baseball Cards

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Kudbegud, you have received a lot of expert and, I believe, well-meaning advice from this board. Overlooked, or at least downplayed, is the historical value of your CDVs, something I gather you grasped at the outset based on your instinct to donate them to the local historical society. These cards are an irreplaceable glimpse at a moment in the history of your family and your region. Whatever you choose to do with the collection, you ought to begin by visiting that historical society to assess their reaction. If they recognize the CDVs' significance, they might offer a variety of options ranging from buying them from you (likely with another donor's contribution), accepting them on loan or donation with strings attached or just photographing or scanning the cards for their permanent collection. That way your ancestor's treasured collection would be available to your community for generations. Further, I would suggest you contact the Society for American Baseball Research to locate a historian (perhaps someone local who could trace the players' backgrounds and eventual fates) who could use this collection as a stepping-off point in researching this team. The CDVs would make an excellent SABR journal article or monograph that would ensure your ancestor's place in baseball history. Baseball historian extraordinaire John Thorn is a frequent visitor to this board and might respond, or you could start by visiting with the SABR website, SABR.org. All of this can be done without surrendering the CDVs. If you do choose to sell the collection on the open market, they undoubtedly will pass into the hands of someone who will treasure them, but they also likely will be as inaccessible to public viewing as if they were in a museum basement.
Bob Richardson, longtime SABR member