Ed "Baldy" Silch, Center Field, Denver, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1888

This is a carte-de-visite of Ed "Baldy" Silch, Center Field for Denver, made by Goodwin & Company for Old Judge Cigarettes around the late 1880s. These cards, printed on thin paper stock using photographic techniques, are a fascinating example of early commercial photography. They were inserted into cigarette packs as a promotional item, a small collectible that linked the burgeoning sport of baseball with the equally popular, and perhaps more addictive, habit of smoking. Consider the mass production required to create these cards on an industrial scale, churning them out in vast quantities. The photograph itself would have begun as a single exposure, but then was reproduced through mechanical printing, to be distributed as ephemera, eventually discarded. These cards blur the lines between art, advertising, and sport. As objects that were literally consumed, they remind us of the deep connections between leisure, labor, and the rise of consumer culture. The focus here isn't just on the image, but the network of production and consumption that gave it meaning.