Baseball, from the Novelties series (N228, Type 4) issued by Kinney Bros. 1889

This chromolithograph card, about the size of a silver dollar, was made by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company, sometime in the late nineteenth century. Part of a series of novelty cards, it shows a young woman in a sporty nautical outfit against a backdrop resembling a baseball. What does this baseball card, issued by a tobacco company, tell us about the social and cultural landscape of the time? Well, mass-produced color lithographs became popular advertising tools at the time. As a result, commercial images became pervasive in everyday life. Baseball was emerging as a national pastime, so associating their product with wholesome recreation must have appealed to the company. But it also reminds us that tobacco was ubiquitous; even something as innocent as baseball could be used to promote the habit. Historical research into advertising ephemera, combined with an understanding of social and economic trends, can help us interpret the meaning of such images and how they were circulated.