1862 Beaver Wyk Albumen Photo
 

Looking for some sleuthing for this puppy.

cool! looks like the son may have hand colored an old pic of his dear old dad!!!!

That's a very early one, Leon. And an unusual format.

Beaverwyck was a very early name for Albany, and the placename still exists (as Beverwyck) for a neighborhood or area there. I don't think the name was used anywhere else. Seems like there were prominent Vails around there.

I, along with Scott B, did a few minutes of searching. I probably did a little
more than he, before and after. We found that tie in. I am sort of surprised not more turned up. It's an unusual name, but then again, it's 162 yrs old. I will have better scans in a few days.
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Brief reference in Base Ball Pioneers
 

Leon, I was trying for that myself. There is a very brief reference to the Beaverwyck team from Albany playing in the 1860’s.

times like this make selling the trove of 1860's - 1890's New York newspapers with baseball content very bittersweet. I bet something would've turned up.

Love it! Great image Leon!

Glenn

The dream would be that this is some relation to William Vail of Knickerbocker legend as he would be in the relative area. However, unless it is distant he had no close relatives of that name, I could find listed.

The middle initial does help limit the list as I found very few applicable Henry T Vails, and no Henry J. Vails in the applicable age range (I used J as early fancy cursive can be tough at times to be definite)

I have a feeling this is him on page 342.

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/ABT...pal+government

This is the petition to have Brooklyn join New York City, which he has signed under the following -

"We, the undersigned, merchants and business men of the city
of Brooklyn, respectfully petition the Honorable Legislature,
through its joint subcommittee on consolidation, to take no final
action of any kind on consolidation until the matter shall have
been submitted to the people of Brooklyn for a further expression of their opinion."

Based on the date of Feb 25th 1896 and he is recognized as a business owner, the age would be reasonable (50ish?). Unfortunately, the business address of 46 Third Ave in Brooklyn was rebuilt in 1900, so no photos I could find of that period. However, I had assumed he was a grocer and the newer building was his that was built.

It's currently vacant and in rough shape - https://www.loopnet.com/property/46-...047-001850025/

In the 1903 city record here on page 4556, he was granted a license to sell and deliver milk for the Third street address-

https://www.google.com/books/edition...sec=frontcover

I then was able to locate his middle name of Terbush, using a little deduction. As luck would have it, the Vail family has a published full genealogy, found here from 1902 - https://www.seekingmyroots.com/membe...es/G006866.pdf

This shows Henry born Sept 18, 1845. Page 303 (297 page count), indeed shows him as a grocer in Brooklyn at the time of 1902. (also about 17 in the photo if this is the player)

Good news, bad news on William Vail. That name is listed in the Genealogy and the birth date is 1819 (Knickerbocker Vail is thought to have been born in 1817 or 1818). Bad news is he was listed as a farmer in Pennsylvania and then Wisconsin.

Granted, this is the best I could do in about an hour of research. However, I think it could be some decent leads on your mystery ballplayer. :)

Great job, Justin! I love this type of research. Fun, isn't it?

I don't know about you guys, but my initial reaction was a huge cringe to that kid's handiwork. He obviously used one of those twin-tipped red and blue pencil crayons that were popular for many years and can still be found in antique stores on occasion.

Is there any means of removing it? I doubt it.

First of all, hats off to Justin. Great job and very appreciated. Maybe more will come out but regardless that is fantastic.

With regards to the kids coloring work? To me, it adds to the piece. Black and white (or aged tan etc..) is a little boring.

The coloring is like folk art. I really like it, and all things being equal, would pay at least a little more for one with this type of coloring, than without. But it is all very subjective. The old "beauty in they eye of the beholder" thing.

The coloring provides the uniform colors which otherwise may not have been known. Of course, this assumes they were not added much later and were a guess. The only thing I wish was not added is the writing on the bib. As for Vail’s they were definitely from the Albany area and the Pioneers book even has a reference to another Vail providing the grounds for games for better known teams.

+1 agree love the research and love the history

I found this 1865 census from Riverhead in Suffolk County, NY with a Henry T. Vail listed at age 19.

The coloring looks like it could be period, 1860s. There's lots of examples of very crude hand-coloring, especially on paper prints, especially by amateurs. (The daguerreotype colorists were much better!)

for example:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1448496...de-visite-hand

But if it smells and feels like crayon, it's crayon.

The photo came in. It's on paper stock like the page, with the die cut picture, was in an album before. You can see the albumen in the photo under magnification... My 2nd oldest baseball item. Very happy to add it to my eclectic collection... btw, it's not crayon :)

I asked the seller if he had any info on the photo, from his consignor. This is what he said -

"Not much else for information. It was kind of an odd situation that someone took some albumen photographs and glued them into some album pages with alot of law school students and New York City politicians and nothing at all baseball or fireman related for some reason. The people that had it last didn't know anything about it and just wanted to get rid of pages. Someone over time put all the pages in plastic sleeves. I did just remember that the album did have a dedication page that read- Thomas W. Cantwell Autograph Book 705 Broadway N.Y. January 1862. Hope this helps..Chuck"

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Very nice item Leon and congrats.

Thanks...It's a very esoteric item, but I really like it, and it goes well in my collection of misfits!
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