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The Rise Of The Baseball Card

Host Frank Stasio talks with exhibit curator Adam Berenbak about a new baseball card exhibit.

Durham and baseball are intimately connected in the minds of many Americans because of the movie "Bull Durham." But the relationship between the city of Durham and the sport dates back to more than a century before the film.

In the late 1800's, Durham's American Tobacco Company played an important role in the creation of the baseball card. Tobacco companies were the first industry to use baseball cards in their advertisements, and the most famous baseball card in history advertised the American Tobacco brand.

A new two-part exhibit traces the history of the baseball card and examines how different historical eras and social issues shaped the cards and the sport as a whole.

Host Frank Stasio talks with exhibit curator Adam Berenbak, an archivist in the National Archives Center for Legislative Archives. The exhibit is on view at both the Museum of Durham History and the Durham Bulls Athletic Park through Monday, Sept. 5. The museum hosts a special family day event Saturday from 2-5:30 p.m. with food trucks, live music, and baseball storytelling with Adam Berenbak.

1909-1911 American Tobacco T206 Insert Cards, Various players.
Courtesy of Adam Berenbak /
1909-1911 American Tobacco T206 Insert Cards, Various players.
1909-1911 American Tobacco T206 Insert Cards, Various players.
Courtesy of Adam Berenbak /
1909-1911 American Tobacco T206 Insert Cards, Various players.

Copyright 2016 North Carolina Public Radio

Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.