A.J. Shumann Co. Chicago Cubs West Side Grounds RPPC set circa 1908

[Dto7]

made the photo clearer

[slidekellyslide]

The postcard was mailed in 1908. You can see part of the 8 at the bottom of the postmark. Great image. I wonder what ever became of those statutes?

[whitehse]

As a huge fan of Chicago baseball and it's associated history, this is pretty awesome. I dont think I have seen such detail of the front of the West Side Grounds like this one shows. The cubby bears holding up the window is really cool.

Looking at the statues on the top of the building makes me wonder if this was the inspiration for the pitcher and catcher posted on top of the early Wrigley Field scoreboard seen below.

[BeanTown]

Love seeing RPPCs which is a piece of American history! You have a great eye for cards Jim

[WillowGrove]

Jim - very cool PC, I bid strong but nice to see it went to a good owner.

I looked through an old Cubs magazine I have and found a couple photos of the statues and a little write up too that I think you'll like.

Again, great purchase. So cool. (and Don, thanks for making clearer!)

[T206Jim]

Fantastic magazine article Peter! Is the magazine dated? It seems to imply the statues were put up the prior year.

[bmarlowe1]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

The postcard was mailed in 1908. You can see part of the 8 at the bottom of the postmark. Great image. I wonder what ever became of those statutes?

Noting the two cubby bears holding up the bay window, this photo would likely have to have been 1908 or later given that the Chicago NL ballclub did not officially adopt the name "Cubs" until the 1908 season, though it had already been in common usage by newspapers and fans for several years.

[T206Jim]

I have just discovered that this postcard was issued by the A.J. Schumann Co. out of Chicago. They did at least two other RPPCs of the West Side Grounds in 1908 as shown below as depicted in Ron Menchine's A Picture Postcard History of Baseball. Some of their postcards had a stamp on back and some did not, a typical stamp is also shown. All of them had the distinctive handwriting on the front which was the hallmark of a Schumann postcard. A.J. Schumann was to Chicago RPPCs of the early 1900s as Thaddeus Wilkerson was to New York postcards during that same era. The work of each are remarkably similar and are real high spots in the RPPC collecting world. It appears that the Schumann PCs are much more rare than the Wilkerson PCs which are scarce themselves. A copy of a Wilkerson Polo Grounds RPPC like the one shown below recently sold at REA for $5,400.

Schumann 1.jpg

Schumann 2.jpg

schumann back stamp.jpg

wilkerson polo.jpg

[WillowGrove]

Jim its funny because the other night i pulled out Menechine's book and saw these and i said to myself, oh ill have to post them for Jim this weekend.


Soooo, i guess I can cross that off my list.

Good work pulling these together.

Are there other answers you're searching for or do you feel pretty good where you are?

[T206Jim]

Thanks Peter! I'm pretty confident that I now know what it is now, but I'd love to know if there are Schumann shots out there and how many total exist. My guess is there may be only single digit amounts of these out there total for all Schumann baseball RPPCs combined.

[Greenmonster]

Hi Jim,

I have (or had) these Schumann cards, I think I traded the West Side with carriages card.