Knight, New York, American League, from the White Border series (T206) for the American Tobacco Company 1909 - 1911

This baseball card of Knight, New York, American League, was made for the American Tobacco Company. It's not like any of them had formal training, it's all about the process of image making. Look closely, and you can see the dot matrix style of printing used to make these cards. The color is built up in tiny little dots, creating a kind of buzzing effect. It’s so different from the sleekness of today's digital prints. There’s something wonderfully imperfect about it. And the colors, this slightly faded, slightly off-kilter palette; it just resonates in a way a slick, modern card never could. It reminds me of old comics, cheap printing, but it also speaks to a moment in time, early twentieth century Americana. It's so casual in its construction, its almost easy to miss how this card is a perfect little gem. This card sits alongside other printed matter from the period and points to a time when image making was less fixed, and more open to interpretation.