To be or Not to be the Wright Bros. Photo

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by jpop43

The mystery of the reversed lettering stems from the fact that the player simply affixed the detachable bib panel upside down when he put his shirt on.

Must have been one helluva party.

Brian

[bgar3]

Tom,
I have checked Ellard and can find no similar uniform matches for 1868, or 69 as expected. I attached photos which include the cover image with a good illustration of the logo for you to compare. The team disbanded in 1870.
I think it is unlikely to be a team associated with the Red Stockings, but it could very well be a team that adopted the same or similar logo based upon their success and the surrounding publicity.

[SteveS]

Hi Directly. I would first point out to you the very prescient comment you posted in my Knickerbocker thread. Your percentages are spot-on. I have taken some time to review your photo, and in my opinion (which this board doesn't value much), I don't think they are matches. Some specific things I see that stand out are that your Harry has a prominent fold in his ear, which is not present in any known photos of Harry. Also, your Harry's mouth is wider than the known Harry. For George his nose is noticeably shorter than your George, and his chin is less rounded. I am posting side-by-side comparisons from your photo along with examples from a well-known picture of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings. I chose this one because the players are wearing caps, as in your photo. I reversed the image of yours as tintypes are mirror images. I also sharpened all the images to make them easier to see and compare. Finally, I ran them through facial-match software. Harry gets a score of 33% and "from different persons," and George gets 30% and also "from different persons." As always, none of this is conclusive and I hope you are eventually able to prove the IDs, whether it's the Wrights or others. Regardless, it's an extremely cool pic!

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

Must have been one helluva party.

Brian

They were partying like it was 1899.

[drcy]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

They were partying like it was 1899.

[Directly]

I'm laughing too -- at all the so called photo experts--what a disastrous error he made with my Dubuque photo-if he and some of you would have just tried to help me instead of against me the outcome could have ended up as gentlemen.---get him on here!

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Directly

I'm laughing too -- at all the so called photo experts--what a disastrous error he made with my Dubuque photo-if he and some of you would have just tried to help me instead of against me the outcome could have ended up as gentlemen.---get him on here!

What happened with the Dubuque photo? I read the thread, but didn't see any finality of outcome or determination on that photo.

As far as this thread goes, I don't see a resemblance between the subjects in the photos. But they're also not particularly clear images either.

[2dueces]

Hard to find good humor today. Everyone is afraid of being canceled. This thread added a bit of humor to a very nice September morning.

[Directly]

Mr Snowman- the photo was discovered in St Louis around 1991. to start Charles Comiskey Played baseball in Dubuque Iowa between 1878-1881--then going on the St Louis to play for the Browns in 1882---Years ago I had a few pleasant conversations with a very professional TV show baseball expert who studied the photo and confirmed my hunch and offered me some money to sell. I was also asked by a collector to bring the photo to Chicago. Years later I posted the photo on Ebay and somehow it came up on Net54. That's when I was thrown under the bus and dragged threw the mud by a few Net54 experts--this dragged on until recently a professional photographer found and pointed out the photo was dated--(81) I found a SABR article/Bio of Joe Quinn. Bingo! Joe Quinn was asked to join Comiskeys team in 1881--this connected the dots--Comiskey was Joe's mentor in 1881 per the article----Quinn had a business and is lay to rest in St Louis--I believe this photo once belonged to Joe Quinn and became lost after his sons passed.

( In 1881 Quinn would be 19 and Comiskey 22 )--if you go thru the link, I was told to hurry up and sell --looking back on this statement I think he was worried he made a error and indeed he had !

I was planning to take the original photo to the national Chicago but the Covid-19 concerned me so I cancelled.--

[drcy]

None of your photos show any famous baseball players. 99% of high school and tintype photos don't show anyone famous. The team photo appears to show a high school team and is not of the correct era to depict Comiskey and Quinn at those ages.

The tintype actually is a really nice baseball tintype, and stands on its own as a nice tintype without there being a famous player.