A Rounder, from the Talk of the Diamond set (N135) issued by Duke Sons & Co., a branch of the American Tobacco Company 1888

This baseball card, "A Rounder," was printed by W. Duke & Sons around 1887. It's a chromolithograph, meaning that multiple limestone printing plates were used, each inked with a different color. This allowed the company to create colorful images at a far lower cost than hand-painted cards. Consider the context: Duke was one of the first companies to mass-produce cigarettes. These cards were included in the packs to stiffen them, but soon became marketing tools. In this example, the card links the company to the emerging culture of baseball, and the image features a baseball player and two gentlemen in front of a free lunch table. The result is a fascinating mix of commerce and culture. These chromolithographs are very humble things, yet they show how the machinery of mass production has changed our world. This baseball card testifies to the rise of both big tobacco and big baseball in America.