Baseball card for Hank Aaron in his rookie year: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Henry (Hank) Aaron rookie card. Baseball card features both a black and white and color image of Aaron. The large color image at center depicts Aaron from above the shoulders. In bottom left corner is a black and white image of Aaron fielding a ground ball. White and black type at top of card reads: [HENRY AARON / outfield MILWAUKEE BRAVES]. In the top left corner there is an illustration of a Native American Indian. A reproduction of Aaron's signature appears across the bottom right of the card. The reverse side of baseball card features a biography, statistics, and a two panel comic strip featuring Aaron.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1954
• Manufactured by: The Topps Company, Inc., American, founded 1938
• Subject of: Hank Aaron, American, 1934 - 2021
• Subject of: Atlanta Braves, American, founded 1871
• Type: baseball cards
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 3 3/4 × 2 11/16 in. (9.5 × 6.8 cm)
• Place depicted: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Athletes
• Topic: Baseball
• Topic: Sports
• Object number: 2013.120.3
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: No Known Copyright Restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.