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

This baseball card of Waddell, from the American Tobacco Company’s White Border series, presents a concentrated visual field, dominated by the figure’s close-up portrait against a solid blue background. The composition is strikingly simple; the figure is centralized, creating a sense of direct engagement with the viewer. The use of color and contrast is notable; the muted tones of Waddell’s uniform, emblazoned with “STL” in bold lettering, set against the bright blue, serve to emphasize the graphic quality of the image. The white border frames this scene, further isolating and highlighting the subject within its defined space. Considered through a structuralist lens, the card operates as a sign, its various elements—the player’s likeness, the team’s abbreviation, the company’s branding—functioning as signifiers that combine to denote a larger cultural narrative about sports, commerce, and identity. It's a fascinating convergence of image, text, and material object, where meaning is constructed through a network of relations.