Frank Sylvester "Silver" Flint, Catcher, Chicago, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1887

This photograph of Frank Sylvester "Silver" Flint, a catcher for Chicago, was produced by Goodwin & Company in 1887 as part of a series of baseball cards included with Old Judge Cigarettes. Printed on thin paper stock, it belongs to a tradition of commercial ephemera which exploded in the late 19th century, fueled by new printing technologies. The photograph itself would have been taken in a studio, meticulously staged. Then, many identical prints would have been made in industrial quantities. The sepia tone is achieved through chemical processes, typical for the era, lending a sense of nostalgia and historical distance to the image. The mass production and distribution of these cards reflects the rise of consumer culture, linking the consumption of tobacco with the burgeoning popularity of baseball. In this context, the image of Flint becomes a commodity, bought and sold as part of a larger network of capitalist exchange. The image thus reminds us that even seemingly simple things are tied to wider social issues of labor, politics, and consumption.