Radbourn, Pitcher, Boston, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1888

Goodwin & Company produced this baseball card of Radbourn, Pitcher for Boston, around 1888 as part of the Old Judge Cigarettes series. The sepia tone flattens the image, reducing depth and emphasizing the two-dimensional surface of the card. The composition is structured around the verticality of Radbourn's figure, bisecting the frame and creating a symmetrical balance, even though he is slightly off-center. Radbourn’s figure, framed by negative space, engages with semiotic systems where his uniform, pose, and the baseball bat act as signs. His erect posture and direct gaze communicate power and confidence, embodying late 19th-century ideals of masculinity and athleticism. Yet, the softness of the sepia tone destabilizes these assertions of strength, softening the image and lending it a nostalgic, almost dreamlike quality. Consider how the formal properties, like color and composition, serve to not only represent Radbourn, but also to construct a visual language. Through this, cultural values and meanings can be communicated and continuously reinterpreted.