Tin Type Questions
 

Hi-
I recently acquired the tintype scanned below. The pictured person is holding a ball. He has an interesting belt or cummerbund on. His name
is Dan Jackman and he lived in Newburyport MA. This was the only sports related photo found in an album of mid to late 1870s/early 1880s photos.
All of the others were of him and his family.
Is this baseball or cricket? Is there an easy way to tell based on
the uniform or anything else (other than a bat)? Any thoughts or
opinions would be great. I really appreciate all of the help folks have
provided on my other items.

Thanks in advance,
Alan Elefson
aelefson@hotmail.com

I'd say 1870s baseball. The ball resembles a baseball, you can almost see the stitching, and baseballers sometimes wore hats like that. Besides, in 1870s MA., they'd more likely be playing baseball than cricket. The only thing is his uniform and shoes are a bit off beat, but I'd still say baseball.

Thanks David! I really appreciate your thoughts on this. I too thought baseball would be more likely in MA.

Alan

I'm certain it's 1870s baseball. Cricket players wore long pants not knickers.

Even better! That settles it for me.

Alan

tin type
 

Nice one Alan.

Very nice image but what's the deal with the stance? A bit strange.

Not so sure about that. Not positive, but I think I've seen old cdv's of cricket players in knickers.

from http://www.learn-youth-baseball-coac...llUniform.html

"In 1868 the Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first team to address the problem by having their players wear knickers. These Cricket style pants were less restrictive and solved the tripping problem."

Of note, knickers means underwear in England. I have a British friend who has laughed when I said knickers and some similar dual meaning underwear word. Taking in the linguistic ambiguity, you can never prove I was wrong.

Either way, I still think it's baseball.

"Pants" may be the other word your Brit friend snickered at the mention of. My family is from England and when playing golf with my cousins a few years ago I mentioned that my pants were dirtied while trying to play my way out of the rough - the 13 yr old and his 10 yr brother could not get over my faux pas.