Arthur Albert "Doc" Irwin, Shortstop, Philadelphia, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1889

This is a baseball card of Arthur Albert "Doc" Irwin, a shortstop for Philadelphia, produced by Goodwin & Company around 1889 as part of the Old Judge Cigarettes series. These cards emerged during a period when the burgeoning popularity of baseball coincided with the rise of mass advertising. The image of Irwin, a white man in a suit, speaks to the era's narrow representation in sports. The commercial nature of the card reminds us that baseball's early stars were also commodities. Consider what it meant to be visible in this way and at what cost. The photograph is small, but its implications for understanding the construction of celebrity and the intersections of sport, commerce, and identity, loom large.