T.W. Corcoran, Shortstop, Brooklyn, from Mayo's Cut Plug Baseball series (N300) 1895

Curator: Well, if this isn’t a blast from the past! We're looking at an 1895 albumen print card, a piece from P.H. Mayo & Brother's baseball series, N300, which features T.W. Corcoran, shortstop for Brooklyn. Editor: There’s something so endearing about the sepia tones, it casts such a gentle melancholy on the player’s face! It's like seeing a ghost of the sport’s origins, isn't it? Curator: The albumen print lends a distinct tonal range; see how the light delicately models Corcoran's features against the darker backdrop? The texture is exceptionally smooth for the era. Editor: But what do you think it meant to immortalize an athlete this way? I imagine baseball heroes became gods to the ordinary folk... Do you suppose T.W. ever imagined his face would hang in the halls of a place like the Met? Curator: Likely not! Remember, these cards were originally inserts in tobacco products—part advertising, part collectible. It’s a fascinating fusion of commerce and culture. Note the direct gaze, capturing an attitude— stoicism, determination? It's intriguing how portraiture intersected with burgeoning sports fandom. Editor: It makes one think how every athlete wants to transcend the game. Perhaps being attached to "Mayo’s Cut Plug" isn’t quite the grand aspiration... Though hey, smoking and baseball? The times, they are a’changin’, but somethings never leave you, don't they? Curator: Indeed. Also consider, this portrait is printed alongside bold text—both the team name, "BROOKLYN," and, quite pointedly, "For Chewing and Smoking." The typography, its size and placement, serve as another focal point on the card itself, demanding that the commodity of advertisement be viewed beyond the portrait of Corcoran, and further extending towards a material culture embedded in a commercial network. Editor: From our distant perch, a picture is like a message in a bottle, a time capsule of fleeting greatness and the human condition! So poignant, the way this mass produced image survives... almost defies the transience it seems to accept so readily! Curator: An evocative insight. It makes me reconsider what this small card meant, back then, as well as what it signifies now. A neat little encapsulation. Editor: Couldn't agree more, now what else do you got stashed up those sleeves?