Dan Casey, Pitcher, Philadelphia, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1887

Curator: This is "Dan Casey, Pitcher, Philadelphia," a striking photographic print from the Old Judge series dating back to 1887. Goodwin & Company, a notable name at the time, produced it. Editor: It’s fascinating, isn't it? There’s something inherently nostalgic and somewhat melancholic in this monochromatic presentation. The smallness of the object combined with the scale of mass-produced, traded portraits generates its own strange kind of auric weight. Curator: Indeed, and these cards, given away with Old Judge Cigarettes, weren’t merely images; they were cultural artifacts. Their purpose extends beyond simple baseball fandom and we can read these portraits to glean what it meant to be an idealized sporting figure within this particular historical moment. Think of the political weight of athletic iconography during a period rife with its own constructions of gender, race, and American identity! Editor: And materially, the act of including these cards with tobacco is very revealing of production practices at the time. This reveals connections between early advertising and a budding cult of celebrity—also note how it challenges our common understandings of "fine art." Was a baseball card "high" or "low" culture in 1887? Curator: Exactly! Considering that baseball was becoming increasingly professionalized, the construction of its players into celebrities speaks volumes about the commodification of labor at the time. There's something revealing about how we understand these historical notions of labor and fame when we analyze their construction alongside race and gender as well. What messages were being sold alongside Casey, or *through* him? Editor: Well, thinking materially—the tobacco companies bankrolled the photographic technology itself, along with all that labor needed to create this photographic process for a small ephemeral commodity item. Who are the unseen labourers? What working conditions were like to achieve mass printing in the 19th Century? That connects our reading of a mass-produced baseball card to a broader understanding of societal systems. Curator: I concur. Studying the card allows us to consider baseball’s significance to urban identity and also to discuss the narratives and power structures interwoven in early baseball promotion. And by extension, it offers a view into the racialized economy of celebrity. Editor: So a little card gives us access into these big connections, which are made all the more material by considering this was effectively distributed as free advertisement accompanying the mass production of something toxic and often highly addictive. These ephemeral commercial art items really speak volumes.