Clark Calvin "Old Fox" Griffith, Pitcher, Milwaukee, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1889

This baseball card was produced in 1889 by Goodwin & Company of New York as part of a series of promotional cards for Old Judge Cigarettes. The image depicts Clark Calvin “Old Fox” Griffith, a pitcher for Milwaukee. Baseball cards like this one reflect the rise of commercialized leisure culture in the late 19th century United States. Cigarette companies like Goodwin & Co. sought to promote their products through associations with popular sports like baseball. This card is a fascinating primary source for understanding the early history of baseball as a professional sport, alongside the history of advertising, consumerism, and the tobacco industry. As you can see at the bottom, such images are copyrighted. The institutional history of legal copyright is crucial for understanding the context in which these cards were produced and circulated. Historians rely on these types of resources to better understand the cultural and economic forces that shape artistic production. The meaning and value of art are always contingent on its social and institutional context.