Goodwin & Company was an American tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

 manufacturer from New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Initially E. Goodwin and Brother, the company was founded before the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. It was known for its cigarette

Cigarette

A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...

 brands "Gypsy Queen" and "Old Judge". In 1890, the company was merged, along with four others, into James Buchanan Duke

James Buchanan Duke

James Buchanan Duke was a U.S. tobacco and electric power industrialist best known for his involvement with Duke University.-Personal life:...

's American Tobacco Company

American Tobacco Company

The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company...

 to create an American monopoly

Monopoly

A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...

 on tobacco product manufacturing and retail.

Charles Goodwin Emery, who had the principal interest in Goodwin & Company, became Treasurer of the American Tobacco Company. Emery built a showplace "castle" at the Thousand Islands

Thousand Islands

The Thousand Islands is the name of an archipelago of islands that straddle the Canada-U.S. border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for about downstream from Kingston, Ontario. The Canadian islands are in the province of Ontario, the...

 (Clayton, New York

Clayton (town), New York

Clayton is a town in Jefferson County, New York, USA. The population was 5,153 at the 2010 census. The town is named after John M. Clayton, a federal political leader from Delaware.The Town of Clayton contains a village named Clayton...

) and was principal investor in the grand Frontenac Hotel, nearby at the Thousand Islands

Thousand Islands

The Thousand Islands is the name of an archipelago of islands that straddle the Canada-U.S. border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for about downstream from Kingston, Ontario. The Canadian islands are in the province of Ontario, the...

.

Today the company is mostly remembered for its tobacco trading card

Trading card

A trading card is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing and a short description of the picture, along with other text...

s, depicting baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 players, other athletes, and a variety of social scenes and portraits. In 1887, Goodwin & Co. were the among the first to issue trading cards to promote their brands, first using sepia-toned photographic albumen prints, and later chromolithographic

Chromolithography

Chromolithography is a method for making multi-color prints. This type of color printing stemmed from the process of lithography, and it includes all types of lithography that are printed in color. When chromolithography is used to reproduce photographs, the term photochrom is frequently used...

 reproductions of multi-colored etching

Etching

Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...

s.

In 2011, Upper Deck Company

Upper Deck Company

The Upper Deck Company, LLC , founded in 1988, is a private company primarily known for producing trading cards...

 reactivated the Goodwin Champions line, primarily to compete with Topps

Topps

The Topps Company, Inc., manufactures chewing gum, candy and collectibles. Based in New York, New York, Topps is best known as a leading producer of baseball cards, football cards, basketball cards, hockey cards and other sports and non-sports themed trading cards.-Company history:Topps itself was...

' revival of the Allen & Ginter brand. Similar to the original Goodwin Champions set, the revived line primarily features athletes from various American sports.

Card sets

• Old Judge, 1887–90 (N172), the first major set of baseball cards, comprising over 2,000 images and using albumen photoprints.
• Gypsy Queen, 1887, using the same images as the "Old Judge" cards, but advertising Goodwin's other brand
• Goodwin Champions, 1888 (N162), a set of 50 athletes in various disciplines, the first Goodwin set to use colored chromolithography.
• Old Judge Cabinets, 1888–89 (N173), a large-formatted set of albumen print photographs that could be retrieved in exchange for mailed-in coupons.