A History Of Baseball Cards (1876-1980)

Article

Chris Stufflestreet has written a colorful history of baseball cards, beginning with the Old Judge and other cards from the 1800's, then through the early tobacco and candy issues, gum companies and the Topps and Bowman war.

Curator of Collections, Card Cyber Museum
Tuesday, May 3, 2005

Excerpt

Baseball was developed from the English sports of cricket and rounders. According to legend, a West Point cadet named Abner Doubleday "invented" the sport around 1839 in Cooperstown, New York. We do know that the first organized baseball game was played in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1847 and that the sport began to flourish during the U.S. Civil War when Union soldiers played baseball during their encampments. After the war ended in 1865, many of the soldiers took the game home with them.