Shoebox Treasures exhibit updated with rare PWCC Vault baseball cards
This year marks the fourth season that the Hall of Fame and PWCC Marketplace have collaborated on a section of the exhibit called “From the PWCC Vault.”
John Odell, our Curator of History and Research, served as lead curator on Shoebox Treasures and takes time each winter to direct the annual update. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
During the late 1940s and early ’50s, Toleteros issued a series of tobacco cards in Latin America. The 1950-51 series was a color issue featuring the Puerto Rican Winter League, and we are thrilled to have this card of Hall of Famer Willard Brown to show. Brown was a five-time All-Star with nine seasons in the Negro Leagues before he went to St. Louis, and Negro Leagues cards are just always exceedingly rare.
Finally, PWCC loaned a 1954 Topps Hank Thompson card. Thompson had returned to the big leagues with the Giants after a brief stint in the minor leagues in 1951.
Q: That is quite a selection!
JO: It is indeed, and we are thrilled to be able to share these cards with our visitors. To see a set as rare, varied and in such good condition as this, you would probably have to go to The National, the biggest annual card show in the country, and you still would likely fall short.
Q: Thank you, John.
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