Baseball - Kodak cabinet-style snapshots

[Runscott]

Here are three of the earliest baseball-related snapshots (film sent in to Kodak) that I'm aware of. I picked up the 'batter' many years ago and recently obtained the other two:

[CarltonHendricks]

Nice photos and that you have three matching so similiar....that seems odd the back of the batter one seems to be from London.

I'm a novice at photos just starting to learn about them so I hope this isn't a silly question...but were those taken with a Kodak Brownie camera?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownie_(camera)
I googled Brownie camera and the wiki was pretty interesting...I guess the Brownie was something revolutionary that allowed for the first time the masses to take photos instead of professional photographers.

This is a coincidence...just yesterday I bought a really unusual photo of a boy taking a photo of other boys at home plate topping the bat...circa 1910ish...below a lame photo I took in the back of my truck as I left the show I got it at...it's pretty big, framed about 20" x 14"....I'm not sure what to make of it but I'm thinking it may have been used as advertising for the brownie, which as you can see the boy is using...Maybe in the stores where brownies were sold...I just don't know...By the way, I can very clearly see the bat label has an SP inside a baseball so I'm sure the bat is a spalding

I apolgize if this is off track of your cool photos.

[39special]

Nice pictures.Any idea how old they are?

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by CarltonHendricks

Nice photos and that you have three matching so similiar....that seems odd the back of the batter one seems to be from London.

I'm a novice at photos just starting to learn about them so I hope this isn't a silly question...but were those taken with a Kodak Brownie camera?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownie_(camera)
I googled Brownie camera and the wiki was pretty interesting...I guess the Brownie was something revolutionary that allowed for the first time the masses to take photos instead of professional photographers.

This is a coincidence...just yesterday I bought a really unusual photo of a boy taking a photo of other boys at home plate topping the bat...circa 1910ish...below a lame photo I took in the back of my truck as I left the show I got it at...it's pretty big, framed about 20" x 14"....I'm not sure what to make of it but I'm thinking it may have been used as advertising for the brownie, which as you can see the boy is using...Maybe in the stores where brownies were sold...I just don't know...By the way, I can very clearly see the bat label has an SP inside a baseball so I'm sure the bat is a spalding

I apolgize if this is off track of your cool photos.

I don't consider anything off-track. That's a good question about the type of camera used - honestly, while I have pretty good knowledge about old photos, I know next to nothing about the cameras they were taken with. These are from the late 1800's, so they couldn't have been taken with a Brownie.

That's a nice photo you have - really brings back the old sandlot days. I'll be interested to hear what you find on the back of it.

[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by Runscott

from the late 1800's, so they couldn't have been taken with a Brownie.

That's a nice photo you have - really brings back the old sandlot days. I'll be interested to hear what you find on the back of it.

Good point, since there is nothing nada for markings on the front, what I might find on the back would be my only hope of solid evidence what it is or was used for...I just hate to disturb it out of the frame. Thinking it over, the only purpose for the image I can think of would have been for advertising the brownie camera....it's a photo of someone taking a photo...what else could it be?...the message seems to be "look at the kinds of things you can take photos of...even a kid can do it"

I speculate it was one of a a series of them...each showing someone taking a photo of various subjects. If I get time maybe I'll look for a photography forum and post it on there and see if anyone knows anything about it.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by CarltonHendricks

Good point, since there is nothing nada for markings on the front, what I might find on the back would be my only hope of solid evidence what it is or was used for...I just hate to disturb it out of the frame. Thinking it over, the only purpose for the image I can think of would have been for advertising the brownie camera....it's a photo of someone taking a photo...what else could it be?...the message seems to be "look at the kinds of things you can take photos of...even a kid can do it"

I speculate it was one of a a series of them...each showing someone taking a photo of various subjects. If I get time maybe I'll look for a photography forum and post it on there and see if anyone knows anything about it.

You could send a picture of it to the guy who runs this page - maybe he can help: http://www.brownie-camera.com/index.shtml

[Runscott]

Regarding those snapshot cabinets, I found one with the London/Rochester back on the internet, dated 1891, and several with estimates of 1890's.