A Baseball Game in Boston in 1909 - in full photographic detail
 

I was fortunate enough to recently acquire an extremely large (10 inches high x 8 1/2 feet long!) panoramic photo of the old Huntington Ave. Grounds, the Red Sox home from 1901 through 1911.

Thanks to the games profiled on the scoreboard, this game took place in mid June, 1909. It featured the Red Sox hosting the Cleveland Indians.

The stands, the players, the policemen, the ads on the outfield fences, etc. - everything about this is pretty fantastic with its details.

Because of the tremendous size of this, I had to scan it in 9 segments. Wish I could expand the size of this in the post, but hopefully it will give you an idea of the photo, and hopefully this can bring you a bit of enjoyment on this otherwise difficult day!

8 1/2 feet long!! Great photo and thanks for sharing.

Huntington Grounds
 

Wow, Scott, that is an incredible item! I have never seen a panorama that long and expansive. I can only imagine what it looks like standing in front of it all together...breathtaking, I’m sure! Thank you for sharing.

Really cool piece. Also like this part of the hobby. Some really great images available from supplements.


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Thanks guys - wish I had a way to present a full-size photo of it - it definitely is eye-catching!

Are there any other known panos from this era which are similar in size at all to this one? I had never really seen any that were more than 6 feet in the past, so didn't know what else might be out there.

Incredible item, thank you for sharing. I love the Nuf Ced ad...

Believe me, I scoured the crowd more than once hoping to be able to pick out Nuf Ced at the game. Couple of candidates but I don't think I can put a positive ID on him for sure....

Awesome, I'm jealous. Talk about a hell of a display piece!

Yeah...super rad. Now you just need to convince you wife to give up a 10’ stretch of wall!

Love this for the fact that this was taken during the 150 Series of T206. Think about that. Some of the players in this game were currently featured on cards, while other players were later to be in the 350 then 460 Series. Very cool!

Wow!
 

Incredible Scott, can't you just lay it out on the floor? Take a pic from like 6 feet away (social distancing guidelines :) ) and that would give us an idea of the scope of it? Even just to see it against a plant or a chair would be amazing!!!

Can you please? Thanks and its amazing! Peace, Mike

Agreed - the Cleveland team has Cy Young, Lajoie, Addie Joss in the pic, while Boston had Speaker, Hooper, Smoky Joe Wood (for part of the year). Can't beat it!

Thanks Mike! This is it in its original frame. I carefully removed it from the dilapidated old frame - hoping (maybe 7% seriously?) for a bunch of T206's to be stuffed behind it, but it was only stuffed with a bunch of Boston newspapers from March 1910. Most importantly, I removed it with no damage or issues to the photo.

In this picture, it was spread across two big chairs, and took up the better part of my room. It currently is out of the frame, laid out across the room (door is LOCKED so my kids can't go in there while we're all stuck in the house!).

When life resumes, this will get framed properly so it can be sustained for another 110+ years to come. Wish I could share better images of this with you!

Scott

That's just incredibly cool. Do you know what its original purpose was?

Scott fantastic piece!

Not exactly sure. Apparently it came directly from the family of a former long-time Red Sox executive. That's all I know about it - it hasn't been sold or hit the auction block or anything.

Based on the size, especially considering it's from 1909, it must've been pretty expensive to make, so I don't imagine many of them could've been made at the time.

SPECTACULAR! Thank you for sharing--you took good shots!

Here's your pic, isolated and enlarged, to make it a bit easier to see in its full splendor. It's pretty lo-res, so it's the best I could do at the moment...

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5a60e420_k.jpg

Outstanding Photo!

Breathtaking!
 

I'm so glad I asked! Absolutely mind boggling. You are a lucky man indeed! So incredible! Such a refreshing thread in these uncertain times. Thanks Scott!

Peace, Mike

PS I just showed my 12 year old daughter and she's like "dad, apple iPhone has a panoramic feature........"
hahahhahahahhahahahahahahahahha
Apple eat your heart out! she is home from school, it has been decided tonite she will learn about Smokey Joe and Cy you know? Definitely Nap and the boys. Nuf Said! lol

PS 2 and of course one of the best 3B EVER (Babe said) and native Vermonter Larry Gardner! He hit .297 that year in limited action!

What a great photo! Here's your images thrown together...

http://www.collectingbrooklyn.com/ne...nPanoramic.jpg

Thanks Justin! I did that for myself at home in a big version, but didn't know how to get it posted to the board as nicely as you did. Appreciate it!

Wow ... a hi res .tiff of this uploaded to a website and I could easily spend a week looking at this photo :-) Sometimes it's just as fun to look at each person in the stands (their expressions, etc.). A moment in "T206" time :-) Thank you for sharing!!

Agreed - I probably already have done so! Here's just a random snippet of the crowd when zoomed in - definitely can see all sorts of details on everyone...

Almost every guy is wearing a hat. Some of these guys have unopened cigarette packs in their pocket, with a 150 series T206 waiting to be revealed.

wow wow wow wow wow wow

WOW!

That is the coolest thing I have seen in a long long time.

Congrats on the pickup.
Doug

Agreed!

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

Good there was no COVID 19 in those days. What a crowd. Not much social distancing. People are on top of each other.

Thank you so much for posting this! Really made my day!

No, but Spanish Flu became a thing just 9 years after this. Lots of parallels between then and now, and how cities like Philadelphia didn't listen to social distancing guidance and got slammed, and others like St. Louis heeded the warning and got spared as hard of a hit.

Since it's almost a 360 degree panorama, it would be cool (But wildly impractical) to frame it in a ring with a gap in the side to look through.

It might work by printing the scans and taping the printouts together. Could be fun.

I see all those straw hats and think of Rube Waddell going after Andy Coakley's hat in 1905, saying something about it being one day past the straw hat deadline. And they tussle........

And Rube misses the World Series, and never gets another chance.

Scott,

Awesome piece! I love photos like this. A snapshot in time that isn't staged.

Would you care to share a bit more on how you came across this piece?