Clarkson, Pitcher, Chicago, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1887

This albumen silver print, picturing baseball pitcher Clarkson of Chicago, was produced in 1887 by Goodwin & Company, as part of the "Old Judge Cigarettes" series. The card is a product of industrial image production; a photographic negative transferred via contact printing onto albumen paper, then cut and packaged with cigarettes. What’s fascinating is how the material limitations shape the image. The sepia tone arises naturally from the albumen printing process, made using egg whites. This effect, combined with the small format, gives the image a nostalgic, almost romantic quality today, though it was purely pragmatic at the time. The player’s pose is carefully managed, ideal for reproduction and legibility at this scale. Consider the labor involved: from the factory workers producing the cigarettes, to the photographers, to the people employed in the chemical production for photographic paper, the image speaks to a whole economy of production, leisure and consumption. It challenges our ideas about art, bringing photography into everyday life, commerce and even fandom.