Pack your pipe and collect the cards
Baseball cards, as we know them today, were first issued during the 1880s when tobacco companies used them to promote sales. A secondary function of the cards was to stiffen soft cigarette packages. Companies also turned to actors and actresses and beautiful illustrated ladies in swimsuits to keep men coming back.
I’ll continue to post sets of cards to this gallery as I come across them.
Beautiful Bathers series (N192) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co.
Pretty Athletes series (N196) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co.
