Wanted to Share This Amazing 19th Century Photo
 

I know this is not strictly a card but I thought a lot of members would find this photo interesting. Recent eBay purchase.
It’s a game action photo/cabinet dated on the back to 1882 between Harvard and Dartmouth Colleges. I just think it’s an incredible photo! Love the spectators eagerly watching with their horse-drawn carriages. Just a moment in time. Size is 4 x 6.
I know nothing more about it, was hoping maybe some of you detectives might know if any future major leaguers could have been included in this photo (I realize there weren’t many Ivy Leaguers in the 1880s).
Also would love to see similar game action 19th century photos if you have to show.
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Very cool!

Fantastic photo! Thanks for sharing. I'll be following to see what some of the experts can provide for info. Have you contacted the Baker Library? I'm a bit surprised they would deaccession that photo.

Not able to confirm anything at this time but:

Dartmouth
Lee Viau (86-88)
Fred Woodcock (88-90)
Frank OConnor (91-93)

Harvard
Daff Gammons (99-02)
Walter Clarkson (98-03)
Jack Robinson (99-02)

....are your most likely suspects. Years listed are the years they played in MLB. Typically, there was a few year stretch between the time players appeared in college to the time they appeared in the MLB. Sometimes it was right away, sometimes it could be 10 years; but 3-6 years is my best guess for the average lapse in time.

Thanks for that Rich! The earliest birthday of those you listed is 1866. Since the photo is dated 1882 I don’t think any of these players would have been old enough to be in this photo as college players. I still love it though!

Any idea of the exact location in (I assume) New Hampshire? It would be cool to see if any of the outfield buildings still exist (along with about 17 Starbucks :eek:).

great photo

Great photo. There is some past discussion of this image on the web.

https://www.baseballhistorycomesaliv...ox-ball-field/

The field is the current “Green" at Dartmouth. Right in the middle of town. That line running from the left of the batter to the right of the shortstop is a footpath across the Green.

Dartmouth played Harvard on May 23, 1882, in Hanover.

Below is a boxscore from an earlier 1882 game, May 17th, between Harvard and Dartmouth, in Cambridge.

Ken Burns wrote in American Heritage that his favorite baseball photograph is this 1882 image showing a Dartmouth-Harvard game on the northwest corner of the Green. See photos below...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dartmo...ream/lightbox/

I believe that photo/article has been posted here before as it looks familiar to me.

Great grab, Javan. Could be of interest to many here since it seemed to have piqued Ken Burns interest.

Exceptional image!

Amazing insights and info. This is why Net54 is the BEST! Thanks all!

Contributed to a Dartmouth magazine, either in or before 1951

https://archive.dartmouthalumnimagaz...51/3/1/letters

Steve, very interesting. The photo caption in the article says “contributed by T.D. Cram”. My photo has the name T.D. Cram hand written on the back as scene in my pics.

So based off the info in that article, the owner of my photo, T.D. Cram, had a brother Nathan who was the catcher in this game/photo. Fascinating connection.

Great connection! Adds a whole new level the the photo. If I were a Dartmouth collector it would truly be a holy grail item. Collecting Cornell memorabilia deeply myself, making connections like this is by far the best part of collecting for me.

One poster commented how surprised it is that the Dartmouth library would deaccession that photo. Shockingly it’s not surprising at all. It happened all the time across university, and all libraries, in the day. Most likely the Dartmouth library never knew it “left” their archives, probably many many years ago before digital cataloging and better security measures were put in place. A lot of items just simply "walked out" of libraries before the libraries understood the value of what they had.

I've worked at Harvard for many years and have assembled a collection of a lot of Harvard items from that era while working here, so I can help for the Harvard side of things with a couple of items in my office....

Here's an 1882 cabinet team photo of the Harvard varsity baseball team. Also, a scorecard for an 1882 game of the current varsity team against the Harvard 1877 team, returning for a reunion. Players can be seen here, including James Tyng (first to wear a catcher's mask) and Fred Thayer (came up with the mask concept with Tyng, and brother of Ernest Lawrence Thayer, author of 'Casey at the Bat').

This thread reminds us all how great this community is - fantastic image/story and amazing research contributions by several members. Love threads like these!

+1 on that!

That’s a great photo! Don’t see many early images of the field of play. Would kill for a Kansas photo like that. Congrats!