Francis Burke was a mutant. He has some of the best action shots from the turn of the century that I've ever seen, for sure. Especially when you're talking about those old Cubs and White Sox teams. A number of the images in the Max Stein postcard sets were from his photos, and since his company was based in Chicago, it makes sense that it would have used Francis' work.
Oddly enough, if you don't know much about
George Burke, it's really interesting to read that it was through the mistake of Gabby Hartnett and Joe McCarthy that he was even hired to shoot the Cubs. The story goes that in 1929, while they were looking for the contact information of the team photographer, they came across George's last name (which was the only name they could remember), and since his office was located near Wrigley Field, they felt he must have been the guy. So, George Burke, who had no sports experience whatsoever, became the official photographer of the Cubs, while Francis, the man who had been shooting them since the early 1900s, was suddenly unemployed.
In terms of originals, I would imagine that they're a number of them out there (whether that means for sale or in private hands), but I just don't know what that number is. Personally, I've seen a few of his glass negatives for sale, but that was over 15 years ago.
Here are a few examples of his stuff (and 'yes', I would paint the sh*t out of them):
A fellow named David R. Phillips was the owner of Burke's original collection of negatives up until a few years ago. And he may very well still be, as I haven't heard anything of the contrary. Though they're no baseball images on the actual website, some more of Burke's other works depicting life in Chicago from that era can be viewed here:
http://davidrphillipshistoricfineart....com/index.htm
He was the man.
Graig