Baseball Card Photographs CD, 1887 - 1914

Over 3,000+ high resolution baseball card photographs from 1887 - 1914 on CD-Rom! This collection represents more than one thousand major and minor league ballplayers (primarily major league), from teams in thirteen identified leagues and seventy-five cities in the United States and Canada dating from 1887 to 1914. This one-of-a-kind collectible is an extremely rare find and a highly sought after memorabilia item. All pictures on the CD are of extreme detail and categorized accordingly so you can easily find what you're looking for!

These vintage baseball card photos are a true work of art and the finest photographic collection available on baseball history in the United States. All pictures are fully printable from the CD and are suitable for framing! They are all scans from the authentic originals from over one century ago and are of the highest quality.

The cards show such legendary figures as Ty Cobb stealing third base for Detroit, Tris Speaker batting for Boston, and pitcher Cy Young posing formally in his Cleveland uniform. Other notable players include Connie Mack, Walter Johnson, King Kelly, and Christy Mathewson. Here are some sample thumbnails taken from the collection. There is one card from each set depicted in the collage below. All images are much larger and much higher quality on the CD! There are also pictures of the backs of the cards, team photographs, and numerous other baseball related memorabilia items!

This collection is often referred to as the "Benjamin K. Edwards" collection, the original collector of the majority of these baseball cards. Here is a brief description below of what the Library of Congress has to say about this collection...

• This collection presents a Library of Congress treasure of early baseball cards dating from 1887 to 1914. The cards show such legendary figures as Ty Cobb stealing third base for Detroit, Tris Speaker batting for Boston, and pitcher Cy Young posing formally in his Cleveland uniform. Other notable players include Connie Mack, Walter Johnson, King Kelly, and Christy Mathewson.

• Originally distributed in cigarette packs, these cards were the forerunners of modern sports trading cards. They portray such legendary figures of the game as Ty Cobb stealing third base for Detroit, Tris Speaker batting for Boston, and pitcher Cy Young posing in his Cleveland uniform. Although many of the greatest players from the first decades of professional baseball are represented, the collection does not include individual cards for either Honus Wagner or Babe Ruth.

• Baseball cards were first issued during the 1880s when tobacco companies used them to promote sales. Although they also served to stiffen soft cigarette packages, advertising was their primary function, for as early as 1887 cards and cigarettes were packed in more rigid "slide and shell" boxes which had no need for reinforcement. Although the cards vary in design and format, most are 2 5/8 x 1 1/2 inches, much smaller than today's trading cards. Two exceptions are the large format sets of Turkey Red Cabinets and Old Judge Cabinets, produced as premiums in exchange for coupons distributed in cigarette packs. Issued either as black-and-white photographs or color prints, the cards portray ballplayers both in action scenes and formal poses.

• More than one thousand major and minor league ballplayers, from teams in thirteen identified leagues and seventy-five cities in the United States and Canada, are represented in the collection. They include celebrated stars playing for storied major league clubs in Boston, Brooklyn, Cleveland, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, and St. Louis, along with more obscure minor leaguers performing in Birmingham, Little Rock, Memphis, Norfolk, Oakland, Providence, Richmond, Shreveport, Toledo, and elsewhere. Canadian cities represented include Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria.

• Major leaguers account for more than three-quarters of the images in the collection. Great pitchers from the period include Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Smoky Joe Wood, Chief Bender, Joe McGinnity, Eddie Plank, Rube Marquard, and Rube Waddell, among others. Hall of Fame field players include King Kelly, Cap Anson, Home Run Baker, Dan Brouthers, Ed Delahanty, Eddie Collins, Buck Ewing, Wee Willie Keeler, Napoleon Lajoie, and Zack Wheat. Researchers may also find notable player partnerships, such as the immortal Cubs infield trio of Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance or the talented Red Sox outfield comprised of Tris Speaker, Duffy Lewis, and Harry Hooper. Connie Mack, John McGraw, and Charles Comiskey are among the game's outstanding early managers depicted.

• Apart from the wealth of baseball lore and history the Edwards Collection represents, it also provides a rich resource for the study of commercial advertising and printing processes from the period. The earliest cards were issued either as straightforward black-and-white photographs or color lithographs mounted on stiff cards. Reproductive printing techniques advanced rapidly in the 1890s, however, and most cards produced after the turn of the century were created by combining relief-printed color with a black-and-white halftone image.

• Cigarette card collector Benjamin K. Edwards preserved these baseball cards in albums with more than 12,000 other cards on many subjects, including actors and actresses, United States presidents, bathing beauties, military subjects, automobiles and airplanes, flags and flowers, and the comic pranks of young boys. Edwards appreciated the colorful cards for their popular appeal, advertising ingenuity, and historical value: "To the true collector the difficulty of finding old American cards is most inviting, and along with the sport thereof is the interest of research work and the insight as to the living and thinking of our people a half century ago." After his death, Edwards" daughter Elizabeth Erickson gave the albums to noted poet and Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg, who donated them to the Library's Prints and Photographs Division in 1954."

Some of the players in this set include...

Abbaticchio, Ed Abbott, Fred Abstein, Bill Abstein, William Adams, Bert Adkins, Doc Agnew Ainsmith, Eddie Akin Albert Alcott, C. Allen, Bob Almeida, Rafael Alperman, Whitey Ames Ames, Red Anderson, John Andrews, Ed Andrews, Wally Annis Anson, Adrian C. (Cap) Archer, Jimmy (James) Arellanes, Frank Armbruster, Herman Armstrong Arndt, Harry Arundel, Tug Atz, Jake Austin, Jimmy (James) Bailey, Bill Bakely, Jersey Baker, Frank Baker, Harry Baldwin, Lady Baldwin, Mark Ball, Jim Ball, Neal Bancroft, Frank C. Barbeau, Jap Barger Barger, Eros (Cy) Barkley, Sam Barnes, John Barnie, Billy Barrett, James E. Barry, Jack Barry, Shad Bassett, Charley Bassey Bastian, Jack Batch, Emil Batch, Heinie Bates, Johnny Baum Bauman, Paddy Bay, Harry Beatin, Eb Beatty Beaumont, Ginger Beck, Fred Becker, Beals Beckley, Jack Beckley, Jake Beebe, Fred Bell, George Bender, Chief Bennett Bennett, Charlie W. Benz, Joe Bergen, Bill Berger, Heinie Bernhard, Bill Berry Bescher, Bob Bierbauer, Lou Birmingham, Joe Bishop, Bill Blackburne, Lena Blair, Walter Blanding, Fred Blankenship, Cliff Bligh, Ned Bliss, Jack Block, Bruno Boardman Bodie Bodie, Ping Bonner Booles Bourquise Bowerman, Frank Boyle, Handsome Henry Boyle, Henry Boyle, Jack Brackenridge Bradley, Bill Bradley, Hugh Brain, Dave Bransfield, Kitty Brashear Brashear, R. Breen Breitenstein, Ted Bresnahan, Roger Bridwell, Al Briggs Brinker Brooks Broughton Brouthers, Dan Brown, Boardwalk Brown, D. Brown, Mordecai (Minor) Brown, Three Finger Brown, Tom Brown, Willard Browne, George Browning Browning, Pete Brynan, Charlie Buckley, Dick Buffinton, Charlie Burch, Al Burch, Ernie Burchell, Fred Burdock, Jack Burke, Jimmy Burkett, Jesse C. Burnham, Watch Burns, Bill Burns, Jim Burns, Oyster Burns, Thomas Bush, Donie Bush, Joe Bushelman, Jack Bushong, Doc Butcher, Hank Butler, John Butler, John A. Byrd Byrne, Bobby Cabrol Cady, Hick Cahill, John Callahan, Nixey Cameron Camnitz, Howie Campau, Count Campbell, Billy Carey, Max Carey, Scoops Carpenter, Hick Carr, Charley Carrigan, Bill Carroll Carroll, Cliff Carroll, Fred Caruthers, Bob Casey Casey, Dan Casey, Doc Cassidy, Peter Castleton Chalmers, George Chamberlain, Icebox Chance, Frank Chappelle, Bill Charles, Chappy Chase, Hal Chenault Chesbro, Jack Childs, Cupid Christian Cicotte, Eddie Clancey, Bill Clark Clark, Spider Clarke, Dad Clarke, Fred Clarke, Josh Clarke, Nig Clarke, Tommy Clarkson, John Clements, Jack Cleveland, Elmer Clymer, Bill Cobb, Ty Cole, King Coleman Coleman, John Coles, Cad Collins, Eddie Collins, Hugh Collins, Jim Collins, Jimmy Collins, John Comiskey, Charlie Congalton, Bunk Connor, Roger Conroy, Wid Conway, Dick Conway, Pete Cook, Paul Coombs, Jack Corcoran, Larry Corkhill, Pop Corridon, Frank Cote Coulson, Bob Coveleski, Harry Covington, Tex Cowell Coy Crandall, Doc Crane, Cannonball Crane, Sam Cranston, Bill Cravath, Gavvy Crawford, Sam Cree, Birdie Criger Criger, Lou Criss, Dode Cross, Monte Cunningham, Bill Cutshaw Dahlen, Bill Daily, Ed Daley Dalrymple, Abner Daly, Sun Daly, Tom Danforth, Dave Daniels, Bert Daniels, Law Danzig Darling, Dell Daubert, Jake Davidson, Paul Davis Davis, George Davis, Harry Davis, Jumbo Dealey, Pat Deasley, Pat Decker, Harry Delahanty, Ed Delahanty, F. Delahanty, Jim Delmas Demmitt, Ray Denny, Jerry Derrick, Claud Dessau, Rube Devlin, Art Devlin, Jim Devore, Josh Dickson, Walt Dinneen, Bill Dolan, Tom Donahue, Jiggs Donahue, Jim Donlin, Mike Donnelley, Jim Donnelly, Ed Donnelly, Jim Donovan, Wild Bill Dooin, Red Doolan, Mickey Dorgan, Mike Dorner, Gus Dougherty, Patsy Downey, Tom Downie, Thomas Downs, Jerry Doyle, Larry Drake, Delos Dretchko Dubuc, Jean Duffee, Charlie Duffy, Hugh Dugey Dunlap, Fred Dunn, Jack Dunn, Joe Durham, Bull Dwyer, Frank Dygert, James H. Dygert, Jimmy Easterly, Ted Eastley Egan, Dick Ehret, Red Elberfeld, Kid Ellam, Roy Ellis, Rube Emmerke, R. Engle, Clyde Erwin, Tex Esterbrook, Dude Evans, Steve Evers, Johnny Ewing, Bob Ewing, Buck Falk