OT: 19th century printing plate

[aquarius31]

Hi, I thought I'd share this with everyone since I think it's a neat look into the printing process for some 19th century publications. The Daily Graphic publication contains some of the most beautiful 19th century baseball prints. I always was under the impression that their prints were developed via woodblocks. I recently picked up this example of what appears to be a copper plate from the June 30, 1880 Daily Graphic. The quality of the worksmanship is unbelievable and the pictures do not do it justice. I've been unable to find a photograph of the actual newspaper publication for which this plate was designed.

While this is not baseball, I thought it was pretty cool so wanted to share. My dream would be to find something similar with a baseball theme but that's wishful thinking at best.

[GaryPassamonte]

I've never seen any of these before. Very cool!

[aquarius31]

Thanks Gary! I hope to be able find a soft copy of the publication to show what it looks like in print.


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[steve B]

Are you sure of the date? I believe it shows the General Slocum disaster, but that was 1904.

http://www.maggieblanck.com/Goehle/GeneralSlocum.html

The search is complicated by there being a daily graphic that was from England as well as the US one.

Steve B

[aquarius31]

Hi Steve,
The date is clearly marked as "June 30, 1880" and the title of both plates is "The Holocaust of the Sound." It also clearly states "The Daily Graphic, New York" on one of the plates. The New York Daily Graphic had a very unique cover which is consistent with this metal plate (see below baseball example)...the metal plate is simply missing "The" in "The Daily Graphic."

The plate says "Destruction of Seawanhaka by Fire Last Monday." I was able to find the below link which provides more details on the sad events of that day.

http://www3.gendisasters.com/new-yor...ster,-jun-1880

[steve B]

Ah, couldn't read the date on the scan, or the print under the title. Amazing how similar the two disasters were. The image from the cover is almost identical to one used for the 1904 disaster. In 04 the ship was also run aground on an island but not quickly enough to prevent things from getting far worse.

I don't think I have any daily graphics aside from maybe a few of the British ones. The big group of old magazines I bought is mostly 1900-1940 sewing stuff, with a few general interest and a few harpers from the 1860's conveniently skipping the entire early baseball era.

Steve B