For the birds

Whenever anyone says "Go Birds," I always say back "I love the Orioles!" or "Go Blue Jays" or something. Because saying "Go Birds" is stupid. If you like the Eagles, say "Go Eagles!" Or even prove that you can spell a whole six-letter word! "Go Birds" is generic. It's dumb.

What's not dumb are Great Blue Herons. In this blog post, I'd like to share some new old cards of the Great Blue Heron that I recently acquired. They are lovely and they are very, very old. In fact, they are so old that they are now the oldest cards in my collection!

First up is the 1886 Beautiful Birds of America (J1) #42 card.  

The above card is so old it was printed when Stephen Grover Cleveland was President of the United States of America. This card is so old that Colorado was the most recent state to join the union in 1876. This card is so old the following were not yet states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii.

Then we get the 1889 Allen & Ginter Game Birds (N13) card. 

This is what I think of when I deign to think of Allen & Ginter. It is approximately just as old as N.D., S.D., Montana, and Washington, all four of which jointed the union in 1889.

Both of the Great Blue Herons depicted in these cards are sourced to John James Audubon's famous works on birds. 

Do you have any 19th century cards in your collection? Are they sports or non-sports?

Thanks for stopping by!