History of Bowman Baseball Cards: – The history of the Bowman trading card brand dates back to the founding of Gum Inc. by Jacob Warren Bowman in 1927. From humble beginnings in its Philadelphia headquarters, in just 2 short years, the company’s Bloney brand became the #1 selling gum in the country. By 1937 the company owned 60% of the market share in the United States.
The 1930’s saw a crowded marketplace for baseball cards as a result, Bowman’s first trading card releases were focused on non-sport topics including the hugely successful and still popular “Horrors of War”.
In 1948 and the renamed Bowman Gum Company emerges as the market leader in the production of baseball cards starting with the ever popular 1948 Bowman Baseball card set. This was followed with the release of additional baseball card sets between 1949 and 1955.
However, by this point in time
there was a major new player on the block in the form of The
Topps Gum Company. Between 1951 and 1955 a proverbial state
of war existed between the two companies that would later inspire the
book “The Bubble Gum Card War”. Topps
won that war in 1956 when they acquired Bowman for
$200,000 (the equivalent of over $1.75M in today’s
market). This would mark, what would appear to be the end of Bowman.(Internet search)