Patrick J. Murphy, Catcher, New York, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1888

Curator: This is a baseball card from the Old Judge series, created by Goodwin & Company in 1888. It features Patrick J. Murphy, a catcher for the New York team. Editor: Oh, wow, it has this sepia-toned softness. It's faded but there's something noble about him—a real old-timey swagger with that bat and the mustache! It is an aesthetic, for sure. Curator: Precisely. The card is a print, derived from a drawing. It circulated as an insert in Old Judge Cigarettes, a fascinating example of early advertising. It really reflects how images get attached to meaning, especially those of virility. Editor: Tobacco and baseball – classic. I mean, you see the brand linking itself to that hyper-masculine energy of sport! Plus, I am wondering who Old Judge even is? What archetypes are at play here? Curator: Right. In those times, this form of mass reproduction would also create almost instant recognition, establishing popular icons for emulation. Murphy and other athletes become instantly known symbols. This card is an artifact loaded with the cultural associations of that era. Editor: I dig the kind of unintentional rawness of the design; a simple portrait, pretty straightforward font. I keep seeing his outfit as iconic – how baseball uniforms were less about performance and more about making players look heroic. He does look pretty stoic. Curator: Consider the Old Judge brand name. Law, judgement, but then you get an implied seal of approval—linking Murphy’s perceived values as an athlete and citizen, to smoking cigarettes. You get these assumed links as if morality transfers from one element to the other. Editor: That really brings together both cultural zeitgeists: smoking, tobacco, baseball! Today's ads, though, are much more insidious with the manipulation. But this, it just presents him. Maybe with nostalgia, he kind of glows! Curator: I think that glow comes from the layering of symbolic values that coalesce in the image – the sport, health, social class, location – these are all symbols and meanings contained in a rectangle of paper. It creates a little pocket of history and longing. Editor: Makes you think, what everyday image today might become some precious historical artifact in the future! Thanks for sharing this blast from the past.