Baseball in the Vault: Leonard Breecher Tobacco and Chewing Gum Card Collection

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Leonard Breecher Tobacco and Chewing Gum Card Collection

Baseball and Bubble Gum

The thrill of getting something "for free" is even more exhilarating when the freebie is related to baseball. This was certainly the case in the early 20th century when tobacco, candy, and chewing gum companies printed "trade cards" with the company name attached for advertising purposes. For many ball fans, these drawings were some of the first images they had seen of their baseball heroes, and the baseball card collecting frenzy was born.

This digital component of a larger University of Louisville collection holds 154 digital images of baseball cards from the early 20th century.

Christy Mathewson, NY Giants

Back of Christy Mathewson Card
Piedmont Cigarette

View the Leonard Breecher Tobacco and Chewing Gum Card Collection
Repository: The University of Louisville Library

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Why is there a baseball in the vault???

No, it's not because a kid hit a ball through the archive's window!

Rather, there is a baseball in the vault because baseball's past is America's past and America's past is preserved in the vaults of archival repositories across this country. Everyone knows about the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY and its immense collections of artifacts and archival records, but other repositories also hold unique materials relating to our nation's collective baseball memory.

Baseball in the Vault aims to highlight the history of baseball through the lens of the priceless baseball photos, documents, recorded media and memorabilia that are preserved and made accessible in public archives and personal collections across the United States.