Charles Augustus "Kid" Nichols, Pitcher, Omaha Omahogs/ Lambs, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1889

Curator: Here we have a baseball card from 1889, part of the Old Judge Cigarettes series. It features Charles Augustus "Kid" Nichols, a pitcher for the Omaha Omahogs, or Lambs as they were also known. Goodwin & Company produced this. It’s quite a find, a tiny window into baseball's burgeoning popularity! Editor: There's something melancholy about it, isn’t there? Maybe it's the sepia tones or the slightly stiff pose, but it feels very distant and… fragile. Curator: Cigarette cards like this were essentially advertising tools. Imagine collecting your favorite players, but you had to buy tobacco to do it. They gained real popularity, of course, leading to a surge of these images circulating, defining early baseball iconography. Editor: It is bizarre to imagine linking sports with smoking. Still, he has such a gentle face, it’s difficult to connect that innocence with hard commercial practices. I notice he's mid-action, as if about to pitch... almost caught off guard. I am strangely touched by its honesty. Curator: He was one of the best pitchers of his era. Later a Hall of Famer. He’s immortalized here not in a grand painting, but a small commercial token. Editor: It underscores something fundamental: art isn’t confined to galleries or museums. This little card, once tucked into a pack of cigarettes, is a slice of social history as much as anything. The democratisation of imagery in full swing, I'd say! Curator: Absolutely! It reveals how commerce, sport, and visual culture were intertwined. I hadn't considered the democratic element so viscerally! Editor: I find the small format so evocative. A world contained. Curator: Perhaps a world that was just beginning to find itself!