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Fresno Art Museum

2233 North First Street

Fresno CA 93703

559.441.4221

fresnoartmuseum.org

The Art of Selling Bubblegum:

Bowman Trading Cards 1933-1955 

Presented by the American Baseball Card Museum

Exhibition Opens February 3 at the Fresno Art Museum

FRESNO, JANUARY 29, 2024- The Fresno Art Museum welcomes the American Baseball Card Museum’s latest exhibition, The Art of Selling Bubblegum: Bowman Trading Cards 1933-1955, opening Saturday, February 3, 2024 and featuring authentic samples from all 50 of the Bowman Gum vintage trading card sets – 22 sports sets and 28 non-sports.

The trading cards are miniature works of art — drawings, paintings, photographs, and colorized photographs — that had a commercial purpose: to sell bubblegum. Soon after modern bubblegum was invented in 1928, Warren Bowman’s Gum, Inc. introduced its “Blony” brand bubblegum. For decades before, cigarette and candy companies had included trading cards with their products. In the 1930s, Gum, Inc. began putting trading cards in penny Blony wrappers. With over 500 cards on display, the exhibition explores American culture, history, and art reflected in the cards as influenced by the Great Depression, the gangster era, foreign wars, the Korean War, the Cold War, and the transition from radio to television.

Bowman issued its first card set in about 1933, a “Wild West” theme, and teamed with the Walt Disney Company in 1935 to produce a primitive Mickey Mouse set. Bowman then hired the George Moll Advertising Agency near Philadelphia, led by art director Charles Steinbacher, to create the artwork and text for its trading cards. In 1938, the Steinbacher group produced the iconic Horrors of War set, featuring explicit, gruesome scenes from contemporaneous international strife: Japan’s invasion of China, the Spanish Civil War, Fascist Italy’s attack on Ethiopia, and the aggression of Nazi Germany. Bowman reportedly sold over 100 million of the Horrors of War cards — about 10 cards for every American boy of the target age. Life Magazine predicted that by depicting Japanese atrocities, the Horrors of War set would influence public opinion against Japan. Steinbacher and his artists followed in 1940 with a popular Lone Ranger set inspired by the radio show and a Superman set just two years after Superman’s comic-book debut, both featuring color drawings.

Before Bowman ceased producing trading cards during World War II, Bowman introduced higher-quality baseball cards with three sets branded as Play Ball in 1939, 1940, and 1941. After the war, Bowman issued the first-ever professional basketball set in 1948, annual football sets from 1949 through 1955, annual baseball sets from 1948 through 1955, and non-sports sets with themes ranging from entertainment celebrities, law enforcement, space exploration, anti-communism, the military, and the western frontier. Samples from all of these sets are in the exhibition. Other items on display include an actual Bowman contract with a baseball player, samples from knock-off sets emulating the Horrors of War set, cards from Bowman’s only set marketed without gum and to adults, and a special selection of cards of the baseball player who was shot by a “deranged woman” and whose story reportedly inspired The Natural book and Robert Redford movie. 

“Even though the cards were marketed to young boys, the non-sports sets featured serious world and national events. Also interesting is seeing how competition from the Topps Gum Company greatly improved baseball card quality in the early 1950s," said Jeff Jaech, President of the American Baseball Card Museum. Michele Ellis Pracy, Fresno Art Museum Executive Director, added, “We are pleased to show this fascinating example of Americana and believe that our audience will like this unique Pop Art experience.”

The Fresno Art Museum is Fresno’s nationally-recognized fine art museum, best known for exhibiting modern and contemporary art from California, art by women artists, and works of art on paper, along with exhibitions that reflect the visual arts traditions of the ethnic groups that contribute to the rich diversity of the San Joaquin Valley. 

The American Baseball Card Museum (www.baseballcardmuseum.org) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the study and appreciation of American culture, history, and art through baseball cards.

Exhibition curated by Sarah Vargas, FAM Curator and Jeff Jaech, President of The American Baseball Card Museum

Exhibition sponsored by Baker Manock & Jensen PC

The exhibition will be shown from February 3 to June 30, 2024 at the Fresno Art Museum, 2233 N. First Street (at Clinton in Radio Park), Fresno, California 93703. Go to fresnoartmuseum.org for more information.

Media Contact for The Art of Selling Bubblegum: Bowman Trading Cards, 1933-1955:

Jeff Jaech, Co-Curator

[email protected]

To schedule docent tours or school field trips contact: [email protected]