Met Museum to Display Hundreds of Early American Baseball Cards

The 2016 Major League Baseball season started exactly two months ago, which means this is the time of year for hotdogs, fly balls, and reminiscing about the storied histories of our beloved teams. Later this month, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will open an exhibition for fans of America's (original) favorite pastime that takes a look back at the early days of the sport. Titled "The Old Ball Game: New York Baseball, 1887–1977," the exhibition will feature almost 400 rare baseball cards from New York teams, including long-gone franchises like the New York Metropolitans, New York Giants, and the Brooklyn Bridegrooms.

According to a press release from the museum, most of the cards in the exhibition are from the Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, the "largest and most comprehensive collection of American trade cards ever assembled privately in the United States," and they only constitute a fraction of the 300,000 items that Burdick donated to the museum in the mid-20th century. Highlights from the show include icons like Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, and Bob Meusel, and more recent legends including Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Jackie Robinson, and Reggie Jackson.

The exhibition opens to the public on June 10 and will run through October 20. Entrance to the exhibition is free with museum admission. Here are just a few of the featured cards.

Issued by the American Tobacco Company. Christopher Mathewson, New York Giants, National League

Issued by Goodwin & Company. Albert John "Doc" Bushong, Catcher, Brooklyn

Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, American, North Carolina. Photographic copyright, The Pictorial News Co.
Brooklyn Dodgers, National League

Issued by Goodwin & Company. Buck Ewing, New York

Goodwin & Company. Connor, 1st Base, New York

Issued by American Tobacco Company. Keeler, New York, American League

Images courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art // The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection