More Cards from the 1800s!

While much of the baseball card collecting sphere has been abuzz about this week's reveal of the 2023 Topps flagship design (my quick takeaway on that:  I like it a lot more than many recent designs), I've been stuck living in the past.  And when I say "past", I mean it!  Like, the 1800s - the year 1888 to be precise.

Not too long ago, I managed to secure a lot of 1888 Allen & Ginter City Flag cards.  I thought it'd be fun to show off some of them here - after all, when you get a card (or cards in my case) from the 1800s, you gotta show 'em off!

We'll go in alphabetical order by city name since that is how the set is organized by the checklist on each card's reverse (though not so much on these cards since they were all glued to an album at one point and now have severe damage on the card backs)!  

As I go through the cards, just for fun I'll also say if I've been to the city in question.

Baltimore:

Love the harbor photo at the bottom of the card.  Baltimore is fairly close to me (about 4 hours away) but I can't say I go there often.  I have been there though, so that's one yes so far.

Boston:

Hard to make out much on the flag here other than the 1630 date.  I've been to Boston exactly once in my life and my main takeaway was that the city wasn't much fun to drive in (clearly it was designed before the advent of the motor car)!

Buenos Ayres:

I've never been here though I can't even be 100% sure where here is.  At first, I thought this was simply a different spelling of Buenos Aires (capital of Argentina) but then I found that there is a city called Buenos Ayres that's in Trinadad and Tobago.  I kind of have to think this is the Argentinian capital on the card but I could be wrong (the flag is definitely Argentinian looking)!  I haven't been to either city (no matter how you spell it) so this one is another nope for me.

Chicago:

More boats, this time on the Great Lakes presumably.  I have been to Chicago, multiple times in fact.

Dublin:

I've never been to Dublin but I do kind of dig the city flag!

Edinburgh:

Another city I've not been to.  Another sweet city flag though - I'm a sucker for castles I guess!

Havana:

One of the more boring cards in the lot, though it's worth noting that the flag shape is quite different for Havana as compared to the much more common rectangular shape.  I've never been to Havana.

Jerusalem:

Another city that I haven't visited.  The Middle East isn't a place that calls out to me to visit - though I am intrigued by the historical significance of many places in the Middle East (obviously that includes cities such as Jerusalem).  

London:

Finally, we get back to a city that I have had the good fortune of visiting in my lifetime.  I enjoyed my stay in London (though the food scene wasn't great).  

Mecca:

I'll end today's post with another city that I haven't ever been to (and much like Jerusalem, probably won't ever visit).  Neat looking flag though if nothing else!

That's about half the lot that I bought!  I'll probably show off the rest in a future post - that is, if my scanner recovers from today's scanning needs.  Overall, it's great to get so many flag cards at once, even if some of the cards end up being duplicates.  I'll either try to use those as trade bait to get the cards that I'm still missing or else I'll try to list them on eBay to recoup some of my costs of this lot of cards.  

For now though, I think I'll continue to stare at cardboard designs from the 1800s that (in my opinion) still trump anything coming out in modern sets!