Card 2, from the Girl Baseball Players series (N48, Type 1) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes
1886
Medium
Albumen photograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 3/4 x 1 3/8 in. (7 x 3.5 cm)
Classification
Photographs|Ephemera
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, Gift of Jefferson R. Burdick
Accession Number
63.350.203.48.7
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century American ephemera with *Card 2* from Allen & Ginter's * Baseball Players* series (N48, Type 1), issued in 1886 as inserts in Virginia Brights Cigarette packs. Produced by the pioneering tobacco company Allen & Ginter—known for popularizing collectible trading cards—this tiny albumen photograph (just 2 3/4 x 1 3/8 inches) captures a poised female athlete in baseball attire, embodying the era's fascination with emerging women's sports. These cards celebrated "bloomer girls," all-female or mixed-gender baseball teams that toured the U.S., challenging g...
About the Artist
Allen & Ginter
Allen & Ginter, the pioneering American tobacco firm based in Richmond, Virginia, emerged around 1880 from the partnership of John F. Allen and Lewis Ginter, evolving from Allen's earlier John F. Allen & Company. Allen retired in 1882, succeeded by John Pope, yet the brand endured under Ginter's leadership, employing over 1,100 workers—mostly women—for hand-rolled cigarettes by 1886. Ginter, a Dut...