bbpostcards
06-15-2013, 08:43 AM
I thought I'd post these three questions for 19th century experts about this trade card on the memorabilia side, too:
(1) Is this the earliest image of a baseball game in progress at a professional stadium that isn't from a magazine like Harper's? In other words, is this the first "card" showing a game in a major league park?
(2) With baseball cards still being a few years off, is this the first baseball-related "card" showing a non-comic baseball scene that was used to promote a product (here, the newfangled "barb wire")?
(3) Is this the earliest image of South End Grounds?
A little background. The engraver is John A. Lowell. He was involved in Boston baseball from the late 1850's forward and was so influential that the Boston Lowells was named after him. The message on the reverse is from the president of the Boston Base Ball Association. As the National League was founded in 1876, this image shows South End Grounds, the stadium of the Boston Red Caps, in its first year as a professional ballpark. The detail is interesting. People peeking over the fence. People buying tickets. Men, women, kids, all at the ballgame. American flags adorning the grandstands. View of Boston in the distance.
(1) Is this the earliest image of a baseball game in progress at a professional stadium that isn't from a magazine like Harper's? In other words, is this the first "card" showing a game in a major league park?
(2) With baseball cards still being a few years off, is this the first baseball-related "card" showing a non-comic baseball scene that was used to promote a product (here, the newfangled "barb wire")?
(3) Is this the earliest image of South End Grounds?
A little background. The engraver is John A. Lowell. He was involved in Boston baseball from the late 1850's forward and was so influential that the Boston Lowells was named after him. The message on the reverse is from the president of the Boston Base Ball Association. As the National League was founded in 1876, this image shows South End Grounds, the stadium of the Boston Red Caps, in its first year as a professional ballpark. The detail is interesting. People peeking over the fence. People buying tickets. Men, women, kids, all at the ballgame. American flags adorning the grandstands. View of Boston in the distance.