1901-17 Police Gazette Supplements Set (M128)

Posted on October 6, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	M128 National Police Gazette Supplements
Year	1901-17
Size	12″ x 17″
Images	Black and White
Type	Publications
Number in Set	112

M128 National Police Gazette Supplements Overview

The National Police Gazette issued more than 100 large black and white photos as supplements to their publication. In addition to the 100+ baseball players, the publication included other athletes as well non-athletes.

Supplements were dated at the top and the bottom had the celebrity’s name as well as a brief description. Pictures included a black and white image of a player while the backs were blank. The supplements were included in the issues of National Police Gazette. Because they were printed on regular paper, the are often found creased or torn and are easily damaged.

The set included several big names. Notable baseball players included Hall of Famers Joe Jackson, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, and Honus Wagner, among many other stars. One of the more unique issues in the set is a supplement of multi-sport athlete Jim Thorpe, who had a sporadic baseball career while also playing football.

To date, 112 photographs are known in the set. Baseball players were the feature of the issues but other types of athletes, including boxers and wrestlers, and non-sports personalities were included, too.

A uniform number of baseball players wasn’t included each year. Because the publication issued supplements featuring all types of subjects, the distribution of baseball supplements varied quite a bit. In some years, only a few players were featured while others had more than ten.

About the Publication

While National Police Gazette focused on things related to law enforcement, it wasn’t really a straightforward publication. Instead, it was more along the lines of a tabloid with sensational stories. This website says it invented pop culture journalism, and that seems difficult to deny. Baseball was a very small part of what the publication offered.

The publication, seemingly, was everywhere. It boasted to its advertisers that it was distributed in all sorts of places, including 10,000 barber shops, 1,000 cafes, and nearly 500 Army posts. In all, they estimated that 2,000,000 people read the publication and stated that it was the ideal place to advertise men’s products.

Despite that, the publication was actually one of the longer-running ones in the nation. It began way back in 1845 and lasted until the 1970s. While it was an American magazine, it was ultimately taken over by a Canadian publisher before ending.