J.H. Jordan, Champion Live Pigeon Shot, from the Champions of Games and Sports series (N184, Type 2) issued by W.S. Kimball & Co. 1887

This small card, part of a series by W.S. Kimball & Co., presents J.H. Jordan, a champion pigeon shot. But let us look beyond the sporting image. The central motif, of course, is the hunter and the hunted. Since antiquity, the act of hunting carries symbolic weight. In ancient mythologies, the hunter represents skill and survival, but also aggression. Think of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, whose power and precision mirror the hunter's prowess here. The hunter has often been seen as a master of life and death, capable of bringing sustenance or destruction. The birds evoke the vulnerability of life, their fleeting existence captured mid-flight. This card, then, is not merely about sport. It touches upon primal themes of survival and dominion. It engages our subconscious recognition of the hunter's role in the eternal cycle, echoing through centuries of art and myth.