Postcards

Nothing captures the classic baseball stadiums of the mid 20th century better than postcards, which in the 30s and 40s, were made of linen and featured rich colors. Postcards became wildly popular in the early 1900s, and first few pictured here come from that era. Linen postcards were gradually replaced by the Kodachrome color postcards of the 1950s.

Postcards of individual players and teams were produced as early as the tobacco card era. The first one, which shows Tigers Boss Schmidt, is a 1907 Wolverine postcard. The next two come from a 1920 set produced by the Reds. The Frank McCormick postcard, which includes an ad for the Val Decker Packing Co.,

was made by Orcajo in the late 30s. After WWII, a number of teams began producing B&W postcards of players, and the ones made by the Cleveland Indians are arguably the nicest. When Bill Veeck sold the Indians and bought the St. Louis Browns in 1951, the team produced a striking set of player postcards in 1952-53. Also worth noting are the beautiful color Dormand postcards of the early 50s — see Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra are pictured below.

While most major league teams in the 1950s made B&W postcards of players, the striking Dormand color postcards were introduced in 1953. Featuring mostly Dodgers and Yankees, they were photographed during the 1952 World Series in Yankee Stadium. Pictured here are Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra. Also displayed below is a set of 1959 Los Angeles Dodgers postcards, which captures a team in transition that surprising won the World Series that October. The images, which include Hall of Famers Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, were mostly captured in the L.A. Coliseum, where the Dodgers played until their new stadium at Chavez Ravine opened in 1962. Drysdale is pictured in Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, where the Dodgers had at first planned to play in 1958.