Henry Carl "Hank" Gastright, Pitcher, Cleveland, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1889

Editor: Here we have an 1889 photograph titled "Henry Carl 'Hank' Gastright, Pitcher, Cleveland," made by Goodwin & Company as part of the "Old Judge" series. It's actually a baseball card, originally included in packs of cigarettes! It's a surprisingly sepia-toned portrait; almost dreamlike, and there’s something melancholy about it… What do you see in this piece? Curator: Melancholy... yes, I feel that. It whispers of fleeting fame and the ephemerality of youth, doesn't it? I see beyond the baseball diamond; I see a moment suspended in time. Consider the context: a burgeoning America captivated by its new pastime, captured through the newfangled medium of photography, yet still retaining a romantic painterly aesthetic. What does his posture suggest to you? Confidence? Or something else? Editor: He looks… posed. Not quite natural, I think. He looks determined but somewhat frozen, more like an actor. Curator: Precisely! It's a performance of strength. Note how the cigarette company uses the image to market both an athlete *and* their brand; a conflation of virility and indulgence. Don't you think the backdrop, hazy and indistinct, serves to further isolate him? A man on a stage. It asks, "who *is* this person"? Editor: The image makes you consider how fleeting one’s moment can be. That photograph now feels like it holds an emotion I did not realize baseball cards had! It tells such a bigger story. Curator: Yes, in these fleeting images, we capture echoes of lost histories. They tell us a little something about fame, the business, and humanity as a whole. It's like peering through a keyhole into the past.