The history of sports cards, cardboard pictures of sports teams and individual players, dates back to the 1860′s. Originally inserted into tobacco packs to reinforce and protect the cigarettes inside, they would eventually migrate to wax packs of chewing gum.
Some of the earliest sports cards were produced for the Peck & Snyder athletic company. The best known of these was the team picture of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings.
In the early part of the 20th century, the American Tobacco Trust
