Hello all,
I recently acquired a glass-plate negative of Babe Ruth, with no additional details what-so-ever included. I was as excited to research the mystery of this image, as I was to acquire the negative itself.
I am hoping that there are some history buffs here that can help me corroborate or identify when and where this image originated, and possibly more details of how the negative itself was produced or came into existence.
Here is a pic the negative (taken on my phone, hence lack of detail):
Physical details:
- The negative is emulsion on a thin plate of glass.
- It measures about 2" x 3".
- The yellow area at the bottom is a very aged piece of what looks like masking tape.
- The photo is squared off on-plate, using what looks like black marker lines.
- Note - I took the image with my phone. There's a great deal more detail in the negative than my image suggests.
I've scoured the internet for info, which have been sparse. Here's what I've found so far:
- The 2x3 glass negative format possibly matches cartes de visite, or photo enlargers used in newspaper printing. Cartes de visite cameras mostly phased out by the end of the 1800's, although were still in very limited use into the 1920's, so can't be excluded as a possibility (although the exact size and shape may not match?). However, newspaper is a better fit for the characteristics of my piece (tape remnants, and marker lines).
- I've found that there aren't a lot of images of Ruth in game and in uniform, but hat-less. I thought that added a small amount of interest to my image.
- I did manage to find one (and only one) example of my same image. It can be seen on page 11 of a detailed report created in 2012 by Dave Grob (memorabilia authenticator), who used old images to authenticate a $4.4M Babe Ruth jersey. Links:
- I used Photoshop to invert my negative, and overlay Grob's image (extracted directly from his report) over mine. The result is attached at the bottom of this post.
- Grob's image is cropped, and has been manually given an artistic look. In other words, heavily manipulated and stylized. My theory is that since my negative includes a great deal more of the jersey than the image Grob used, his must be the only known version of that image? Otherwise, considering it was used specifically to authenticate a jersey, he would have opted for a version with as much of the subject matter (jersey) as possible.
- Grob's report suggests that the image was taken at Comiskey Park in 1920.
- Based on the background, especially the characteristics of the wall behind Ruth, I believe it was taken at the same time as another image of Ruth and Joe Jackson seen on page 10 of Grob's report. Reinforces 1920 and Comiskey. That image is attributed to the New York Daily News, which is perhaps where mine came from. Link to that image: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Gz09PMiufj...0/photo-2a.jpg
- I believe both Grob's image and mine are copies of an original, for two reasons:
- Grobs is cropped and altered far more than mine. Suggesting that copies were made to be edited like this.
- Grob's image has a very small sliver of extra detail at the top of the image, beyond what mine has. Look close at the extended blurred hat to the left of Ruth's head in Grob's image, in my attached overlay. It's also possible that the area was masked off by the black marker on the glass plate of my negative.
- I believe Grob's image was used as a newspaper headshot, but it could also have been used for a collector card? I haven't been able to find it anywhere outside of his report.
- Based on the theory that the image is newspaper related, I went through hundreds (maybe thousands) of old newspaper page archives relating to Ruth. I focused mainly on Chicago and New York based newspapers, but also branched ut from there. I didn't find my image in any of them.
I would love to get some feedback from Grob himself, considering he is directly related to my only source. However, I'm not sure how to do that, or if it would even be appropriate to try and do so.
I welcome all feedback, including suggestions of what I should do with the negative.
Thank you!
My inverted negative image, with Grob's image overlayed. Apologies, the forum limits gif's to a 280px height. My original in photoshop is a much higher resolution.
Better resolution gif showing overlays
