Henderson, Pitcher, Brooklyn, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1887 - 1890

This is a promotional baseball card from the Old Judge Cigarettes series, made by Goodwin & Company in the late 19th century. It features Henderson, a pitcher for the Brooklyn team, poised with his bat on a rustic, unmanicured field. These cards emerged during a period of burgeoning baseball fandom, amidst a rapidly industrializing America. What strikes me is how this card collapses the space between labor and leisure, sport and industry. Baseball, ostensibly a game, becomes a tool for selling cigarettes. And Henderson, a working-class athlete, becomes a commodity, his image packaged and distributed to promote consumption. The image is both intimate and alienating. Think about how this card contributed to the construction of celebrity and the commercialization of sports, a trend that continues to shape our culture today. What does it mean to see a person’s identity so closely tied to a product, then and now?