Glasscock, Shortstop, Indianapolis, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1888

This baseball card was made by Goodwin & Company around 1888, as part of a series of promotional items for Old Judge Cigarettes. It's made through the process of photography and commercial printing, a relatively new technology at the time. What’s striking is how this image intertwines leisure, labor, and consumption. The card features Glasscock, a shortstop for Indianapolis, in a posed action shot. But it was mass-produced, inserted into cigarette packs as a marketing ploy. The photograph itself is carefully crafted to highlight his athletic prowess, designed to capture the excitement of the sport and transfer it to the product. Consider the sheer quantity of these cards that must have been printed and distributed, each one a small, disposable token of a growing consumer culture. There’s a deliberate association being made between the skilled labor of a baseball player and the labor involved in producing and selling cigarettes. This little card shows the beginnings of a system that still operates today, where sports and other forms of entertainment are closely linked to commercial brands. It asks us to question the relationship between our pleasures and the industries that profit from them.