Library of Congress – Baseball Main Collection

This collection presents a Library of Congress treasure — 2,100 early baseball cards dating from 1887 to 1914. The cards show such legendary figures as Ty Cobb stealing third base for Detroit, Tris Speaker batting for Boston, and pitcher Cy Young posing formally in his Cleveland uniform. Other notable players include Connie Mack, Walter Johnson, King Kelly, and Christy Mathewson.

Cigarette card collector Benjamin K. Edwards preserved these baseball cards in albums with more than 12,000 other cards on many subjects. After his death, Edwards’ daughter gave the albums to noted poet and Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg, who donated them to the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division in 1954.