Arthur "Art" Wilson Whitney, 3rd Base, Pittsburgh, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge and Gypsy Queen Cigarettes 1887

This small photograph of Arthur “Art” Wilson Whitney, a third baseman for Pittsburg, was made by Goodwin & Company in 1887. It’s a product of photography, of course, but also of industrial printing. These cards were produced in vast quantities, using albumen prints adhered to card stock. In their day, such images were a relatively new technology, perfectly suited to mass production, and distribution in cigarette packs. Like baseball itself, such cards became a craze, bought and traded by legions of fans. The image's sepia tones speak to the materiality of the albumen process. But they also remind us of the context in which it was made, the social world of labor, leisure, and capitalism. The mass production of baseball cards mirrors that of the cigarettes they accompanied, and the increasing commercialization of sport itself. So, next time you consider a baseball card, remember that its meaning lies not only in the image it presents, but also in the industrial processes of its making, and the complex social world to which it belonged.