Baseball Stereoviews

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Posted By: Lyman

Greetings. Old Cardboard magazine is planning an article for our next issue about vintage baseball stereoviews and we need your input. If you have any of these dual-image picture cards that we could use to help illustrate the article in a most unique way, please post a scan here or send via email attachment to editor@oldcardboard.com. You (and Old Cardboard readers) will be glad that you did. Thanks for your input and your continued support for Old Cardboard. --Lyman Hardeman

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Posted By: RobertS

This stereoview card was produced by Webster & Albee Publishers of Rochester, NY in the 1880s (as per card mount style, color and printing), reproducing an 1870s stereoview first issued by Bacon & Carnall. It is among the earliest photographic images of African-Americans playing baseball.

This photograph, which was taken by famous Rochester photographer F.W. Bacon, depicts a game at the House of Refuge, an orphanage in Rochester, New York. c. 1874. The view is similar to other stereoviews attributed to Bacon, that depict a game between "Colored" and "White" youths at the same facility. Very rare close-up photos of this same baseball game were also issued in Carte-de-Visite form by the same photographer.

The game shown in this card above was a mixed game with both African-American and Caucasian players seen on the field. Dark hats were used by the black team, while the jockey style caps were worn by the white boys. Interestingly, Charles R. Webster and Josephus Albee were a major publisher of pirated copies of views (with this baseball image "stolen" from Bacon & Carnall).

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Posted By: barrysloate

Robert- You are absolutely correct that that is one of the earliest known images featuring African-Americans playing baseball, and quite important at that. I believe there is least another image known, with the camera stationed a little closer to the players. (you mentioned this in your description. Sorry to be redundant).

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Did a great line of boxers in that era; didn't know they did stereoviews too.

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Posted By: RobertS

Barry--

I always find it tough to place a value on photos, especially stereoviews. I got this one as part of a trade and neither I nor the seller knew it featured African-American players.

Despite our mutual lack of knowledge about the teams depicted, he had originally priced the card high (hence my need to offer him some post-war trade bait, along with a little bit of money).

This is a round-about way of coming to my question, "how much would something like this be worth?" At the moment, I'm not looking to sell the card, but am still curious as to how much it would sell for.

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Posted By: Rob L

c1870s (I guess).




Rob L

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Posted By: barrysloate

The stereoview used to be pretty valuable, and it was not unusual to see it selling in the high hundreds to near a thousand dollars. But in today's market, with such an emphasis on cards, a lot of the memorabilia has taken a back seat and has slipped a little in value. But it's still a very significant image, whatever today's market might bring. P.S. This thread is much too wide to read.