Howell, St. Louis, American League, from the White Border series (T206) for the American Tobacco Company 1909 - 1911

This baseball card, Howell, St. Louis, American League, was made for the American Tobacco Company. Just looking at this little rectangle makes me think about how art gets distributed – this was made to be collected, traded, obsessed over. It's a portrait of Howell, but it's also a set of graphic shapes and colours. The yellow background really pops, making Howell's face and the St. Louis lettering stand out. I can imagine the artist thinking about how to simplify and flatten his features, turning him into an icon. It's like they’re saying: "How can I make this person recognizable and memorable within these tiny dimensions?" The brown lettering is so solid and blocky, it gives the card a real sense of weight. And his gaze off to the side? Like he's looking to the next play. These kinds of images – they keep circulating, they find new contexts and new audiences, and they always carry with them a sense of history and memory.