1860s Baseball - my first 19th Century

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Posted By: Joe D.

My first 19th Century baseball photo collectible... can we consider this a card?

A stereoview from the 1860s (or possibly 1870s I am told). A very cool image of a baseball game.
Looks like the game is some sort of pickup game in front of a pretty nice size crowd.

It is an action shot of a batter getting ready to hit and a pitcher considering his next pitch.

I hilighted a few things in the closeup scan... the pitcher, the batter and catcher,
in the crowd a Wyatt Earp looking guy, an Abraham Lincoln top hat looking guy,
and three ladies in full dress (how did they wear all that in the summer?).

It looks like maybe there is a row of boys in the front, and then a row of girls
behind them. Each time I look into the crowd I see something else.

No date or location on the piece (nothing to help identify it).

If anyone has info on stereoviews that would be cool to hear. Or if you have any
stereoviews of your own to share that would be great to.

All comments are appreciated.

Regards,
Joe

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Posted By: barrysloate

You will probably have a tough time identifying it unless someone recognizes the building. The top hats you pointed out are usually seen in the 1860's, pretty much disappeared by the 1870's. I'll take a stab and date it 1868-70. It's a very nice image with lots of activity. I didn't look closely but if there are posts instead of bases they are playing the Massachusetts game. Nice little photo, but I don't think it's a card; it's a stereoview.

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Posted By: Joe D.

The guy who sold me the stereoview said that it was with a bunch of other stereoviews from the New York and the New England area.

I don't see any bases... so I guess Massachusetts makes sense.

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Posted By: barrysloate

The Massachusetts game was played with posts and not bases. I don't see posts, so they are playing the game as we know it today.

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Posted By: Joe D.

to see what you meant about the posts...

looks like they should be four feet high!
I don't see posts like that in the photo - so I am going to agree with
your latest post - this is not Massachusetts Baseball.


http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ruletown.shtml

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Posted By: davidcycleback

1800s stereoviews, often called stereoview cards, were
often sold commercially to the public.

In the 1945 movie 'Portrait of Dorian Grey' a charector looks
at stereoview through a handheld viewer.

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Posted By: Jimmy Leiderman

Here's an animation from a stereoview I own.
You can see the 3D effect thanks to new tech utilities.
It works fine on IE, not on Firefox browsers.

Animation



Full stereoview

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Posted By: ramram

Hey Jimmy, that's pretty cool. I've got an 1860's civil war/base ball stereoview coming my way as we speak so I need to know how you go about doing an animation like this.

Rob M.

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Posted By: Jimmy Leiderman

Hi Rob,

Send me the best scan you can get and I'll have the tech guys at the office make it for you as I'm not exactly sure on the animation procedure.
They worked on a beautiful SV from Jason W. but the first tryout wasn't very nice, and now that I speak of it, I need to check on monday if they ever finished it.

If interested, I'll show you some other stereoview animation examples they made for me.

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Posted By: Joe D.

That animation is very cool.

If the tech guys share their secret, please let me know.


I don't even have one of those old stereoviewers... so I think I am missing
out on half of the fun with this photo.

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Posted By: Joe D.

(reviving an old discussion, hope thats okay)

There are many on this board who are more learned than I am
on the subject and I would appreciate any replies.....

Barry mentioned that this stereoview was possibly from 1868-1870 (ish)


Doing some research on the net, it appears that The Baseball Hall of Fame
in Cooperstown, NY, thinks an 1869 photo of baseball game is one of the
earliest images of a baseball game in progress. (if the info at this link is accurate)

http://www.gunnlibrary.org/greenball.html



My stereoview appears to be late 1860s, and it is of a game in-progress.


I sent an email to the Hall of Fame asking for their opinion...
if this stereoview is one of the earliest images of a baseball game in progress.


I am not sure if they will get back to me, or how long a response would take
(if they do respond, I will post it here).



I would love to hear of earlier game-in-progress baseball images...
or an opinion of if this is one of the 'earliest'.



Regards,
Joe

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Posted By: barrysloate

I think there are several earlier known game action photos, particularly other stereoviews, but not much earlier. Maybe 1866 or so would be about it. But anything pre-1870 is right in the wheelhouse.

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Posted By: Mike

Looks like the grounds keeper need to cut the infield grass, and is that Lee Harvey Oswald hiding in the upper left?

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Posted By: steve f

First, I don't know too much about early baseball;

Your stereo appears to shows a rather large hospital, sanitorium (inornate, drab, whitewash) of some sort. The photo appears New England-ish (Maples). Perhaps a major town. Salem, Portsmouth, Portland, Manchester, Gloucester etc.

There is a lot of white/light garments and several women are wearing the same or similar uniforms, also more than a few white aprons.

I'd bet if you forwarded this to a few Historical Societies you'd get some guidance. I've done this and it had paid off and the contact people seemed really into it -mostly. If it were mine, I'd be relentless, then again I'm a compulsive.

Good luck

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Posted By: Joe D.

Steve... yeah, I research every once in a while (limited internet research)... and I just shot an email off to the Hall of Fame. Hopefully I can learn a bit more about this image over time.

Barry... thanks again - you are a wealth of knowledge.

Mike...
I don't think that is Lee Harvey...

I am pretty sure that is Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday watching off to the left..
as Abner Doubleday watches from closer to the front row.

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Posted By: Jimmy Leiderman

Hi Joe,
Sorry about not having replied to your last email message.
I do have a baseball stereoview database project going but right now all my free time is going to the baseball CDV project website you saw two or three days ago.
I will catch up with my inbox today before leaving on vacation tomorrow!

Here's one mid 1860's Stereo in my collection.




Take care!

Jim

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Posted By: barrysloate

Jimmy- that's mid-60's for sure. Great crystal clear image.

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Posted By: Joe D.

I second Barry's opinion.

Amazingly sharp image.

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

So Joe, you see it would be exceedingly difficult for you to have come up with a better first 19th Century. Congrats!

I too did well with my first venture into this realm. I extracted two Maines cards! Thank you, Lew.

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Posted By: Lyman

The game in the stereoview below was played at the Boston Common. By the time of this picture (after 1877; that's when the monmument in the background was unveiled), top hats had been replaced by bowler hats with the rounded crown.

Issue #6 (Winter 2006) of Old Cardboard magazine is a special issue on 3-D Baseball. It includes over thirty 3-D images, including this Boston Common view shown here, that can be viewed in stereo using "red-blue" glasses.

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Posted By: Joe D.

Lyman,

I love that shot.

It looks like it is right after a hit (follow through on swing), and the kid watching (closest to us) looks like he is looking out to the field (to where the ball has gone).

great stereoview.

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Posted By: Lyman

Thanks, Joe. Here's the animated version.

The animation is a relatively simple 2-frame "movie" (the left and right sides of the stereoview) set to repeat in a continuous loop. It can be created using any animated GIF sofware package. My animation software is bundled with the PaintShop Pro package that I use.

Lyman