Presented is a 1949 Leaf Gum Company "Inside the Horse-Hide [sic]" baseball card album. We have never before seen examples of this album. There are no baseball cards included. The 7.1x10.1" heavy cardstock album has 28 pages, not including covers. The pages of the album have perforated spaces for placing baseball cards, and if using one side of each front-and-back page, there is space for at least 84 cards. A few of the perforations have been partially separated, but the vast majority are intact. The album is composed of black pages, as in a typical photograph album. On the cover is the title of the album, "My Collection of ALL STARS." On the bottom of the front cover page is machine printed: "Personal Property of _______" and the blank line has the signature of the apparent former owner of the album. The front cover also includes a black, white, and blue image of a baseball player crossing a base after completing a throw. The back cover features "Interesting Facts about Baseball." These "facts" include the history of how baseball developed, and they have detailed information crediting Abner Doubleday as "baseball's inventor," a proposition since widely disproved. It seems apparent that the album was designed to hold cards from the 1948-49 Leaf Set, an offering issued over two years. The Leaf Cards measured 2-3/8x2-7/8", and the set was the first colored set to be issued after World War II. Key rookie cards in the 1948-49 Leaf issue are Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, and Stan Musial, and other key cards include Babe Ruth (long retired) Bob Feller, Ted Williams, and Honus Wagner (as a Pittsburgh Pirate coach). The album shows some wear, but it is in overall nice condition.

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