Owen Joseph Patton, Right Field, Minneapolis, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1888

This photographic print from 1888 depicts Owen Joseph Patton, right fielder for Minneapolis, and it was made by Goodwin & Company for Old Judge Cigarettes. As a piece of commercial ephemera, it’s a fascinating window onto the social and cultural landscape of late 19th-century America. Produced during the sport’s burgeoning popularity, the card cleverly associates baseball, a symbol of American vitality, with the pleasure of smoking. Consider how the card visually constructs Patton as a figure of athletic prowess, and, by extension, how it equates the consumption of Old Judge Cigarettes with achieving a similar kind of success. This wasn't just about selling cigarettes; it was about selling an idea of American identity. To fully appreciate this image, we can delve into archival sources, examining advertisements, periodicals, and team rosters to understand how baseball was being shaped as a spectacle and how it was implicated in the social and economic life of the time.