Connie Mack, Catcher, Washington Nationals, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1887

This is a trade card, printed by Goodwin & Company of New York in 1887, featuring Connie Mack of the Washington Nationals. It belongs to the “Old Judge” series of baseball cards, distributed with cigarettes. The image itself is a photograph, likely printed using an albumen process, which was then standard for commercial images. This involved coating paper with egg white and silver nitrate, making it sensitive to light, and then using a negative to create a print. What’s interesting here is the industrial logic: photography, mass production, and advertising all rolled into one. The cards were essentially a premium, designed to encourage brand loyalty among smokers, and to make celebrities out of baseball players. The labor required to produce these cards was significant, from the photographers and printers, to the workers in the cigarette factories. This unassuming little card offers a glimpse into the burgeoning consumer culture of the late 19th century. It reminds us that art and commerce have long been intertwined.