Earliest Babe Ruth Photo?
 

Does anyone know what the earliest recognized Babe Ruth photo is? Like as a child?

I bought the below photo from Hunts a few years back. Babe Ruth's family, from a personal photo album. Nice shot of his father, mother, aunt. But whose the little boy in the bottom left? The album page seems to suggest its Babe. Would be nice to confirm that.

I see a little girl at the bottom-left, and the very top of a head next to her. Perhaps Babe had blonde hair as a young child, and his portion of the photo was 99% cut off?

It also appears that the white ink handwriting was written around photos that were previously mounted on the black paper. That white writing likely pertains to the missing photos that would've been mounted on that page.

That is what I thought when i saw it, a little girl.
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It's a girl

It looks like a girl, agreed, but one of sons with curly blond hair looked a lot like a young girl at that age. Might be the Aunt's daughter.

The phot was mounted on the black page before it was removed to sell in the Hunts' Babe Ruth auction.

Here's an early childhood photo of Ruth that Heritage sold a few years ago.

Hair noticeably darker but I see some similarities in the hair and rather large ears for a child.

Makes the mystery a little deeper.
It looks like a girl to me also.
Hope we are wrong because that would by amazing

Very interesting photo. The text on the album page is great but doesn't suggest to me that the photo includes Babe. The way I read it, the whole page is captioned as Babe & His Family, with the top photo being Babe and the bottom photo his family.

Of course, that doesn't eliminate the possibility that head peeking up from the bottom is Ruth. However, the facts that the person isn't identified as Ruth (where clearly the page is meant to highlight Babe) and that she (or he) is standing against Ruth's aunt rather than his mother, leads me to believe that the head more likely belongs to another child. If memory serves, Babe grew up with five or six cousins (same house, same street, I can't remember which) and his aunt Annie, pictured here with the child, had at least one daughter.

you should contact Mike Gibbons at the Babe Ruth Museum

is it possible it was once a larger photo that someone cut in order to have a separate photo of kids at the bottom half which would have included Babe?

Kind of looks like it was trimmed there to me idk

If I were researching the photo, one of the first things I would do is try to figure out the approximate date of the image. Between the clothing style and comparing the apparent ages of Ruth's parents and aunt to other photos with known dates, one could narrow it down to a few years. If the date matches a time when Babe might have been the age of the boy/girl in the photo, I would keep researching. If not (for instance if it is from a similar date as the photo that used to be above it, when Ruth was 20), it doesn't make much sense to speculate about the kid being the babe....

I believe the image is circa 1905. The girl in the bottom left is likely Ellen Brundige born January 1899, daughter of Milton and Annie Brundige. I believe Babe Ruth was likely already sent off to St. Mary’s Industrial School when this image was taken, although that alone would not exclude him. The separate image of young Babe Ruth resembles several characteristics of his father. Likewise, the young girl resembles Annie Brundige. If that is a child in front of George Ruth, it would likely be Mamie Ruth born August 1900. Mamie Ruth was born a year and a half after Ellen Brundige, so the size difference between the two matches. Because of his situation, there probably were not many images of Babe Ruth taken during his childhood.

That's really interesting. Thanks.

As for as dating the image, I know Babe's father is a lot younger here than her was in the famous saloon picture.

Maybe it's the earliest picture we have of Babe's father. :D

Seriously thanks for all the great insights.

In case you are wondering, this is the photo that was affixed to to the top of the page. Excuse my lousy camera photo.

Great snapshot, any idea the year or story behind it, or location?

20 years old. Druid Hill Park Baltimore, MD. So that would be 1915.

Nice! I'll take it. Send me payment info. :D

One bitcoin and two Dogecoins. Maybe some other coin.