Shortstop, from the Girl Baseball Players series (N48, Type 2) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1886 - 1888

This small card, a lithograph, shows a female baseball player; it was produced by Allen & Ginter, a 19th-century tobacco company. It’s from a series called “Girl Baseball Players,” and its combination of baseball and young women is striking. Baseball was becoming "America's pastime" and as its popularity grew, it reinforced existing social hierarchies. The integration of women into baseball challenged the traditional gender roles of the time. These images, which were included in packs of cigarettes, blurred the lines between the emerging ideals of women's liberation and the old stereotypes of women as domestic figures. To better understand this image, we might consult sources in social and cultural history that discuss the emergence of baseball, the history of advertising, and the changing roles of women in late 19th-century America. The study of art depends on understanding the institutions and social forces that shape its making and reception.