1886–90 Old Judge (N172)

Goodwin & Company's Old Judge cards are the landmark baseball issue of the 19th century: actual sepia photographs pasted onto cardboard and inserted in packs of Old Judge and Gypsy Queen cigarettes. The run began with the New York Giants in 1886, expanded across the National League and American Association, then into the minor leagues, and ended in 1890 when Goodwin merged into the American Tobacco Company. Thousands of player-pose combinations exist, many of them studio shots with the ball hung on a string.