Jim Rowe Postcards

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by abrahamrudy

So basically he was a photograph collector. I guess that makes sense. I wonder how the licensing worked for those pictures...

He wasn't a collector as far as I know, but he was a photographer who I believe worked with George Brace and thus had access to probably the world's largest archive of baseball negatives.

[abrahamrudy]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

He wasn't a collector as far as I know, but he was a photographer who I believe worked with George Brace and thus had access to probably the world's largest archive of baseball negatives.

Looks like you're right about the negatives. My research finally turned up some results:

http://www.lelands.com/Auction.aspx/...llection/page1

A 2006 auction of his collection. Photographs, negatives and even some cards from the 80s.

[slidekellyslide]

Well, I went straight to the source and asked Mary Brace (George's daughter) what the deal is with the Rowe postcards and she told me that Rowe and Brace were good friends and traveled together to Cooperstown and Spring Training and they both belonged to a group called the "Hit and Pitch Club". Brace allowed Rowe to use his negatives and any profit made was Jim's to keep with the understanding that the negatives would return to Brace if something happened to Jim...Jim moved to Florida and George lost track of him...When Jim died there was no provisions made for the negatives to return to the Brace family.

Btw Mary still sells her father's photos at this website:

http://www.bracephoto.com/

[mr2686]

I've purchased several photos from Bracephoto in the past. A great place to find quality pictures of some hard to find players.

[abrahamrudy]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Well, I went straight to the source and asked Mary Brace (George's daughter) what the deal is with the Rowe postcards and she told me that Rowe and Brace were good friends and traveled together to Cooperstown and Spring Training and they both belonged to a group called the "Hit and Pitch Club". Brace allowed Rowe to use his negatives and any profit made was Jim's to keep with the understanding that the negatives would return to Brace if something happened to Jim...Jim moved to Florida and George lost track of him...When Jim died there was no provisions made for the negatives to return to the Brace family.

Btw Mary still sells her father's photos at this website:

http://www.bracephoto.com/

THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is how you do research.

That's pretty sad though, regarding the negatives. I wonder who won that auction... It would have been nice to see the negatives returned to their rightful owners.

So is there an authoritative catalog of the postcards that were released by Rowe? Or are we just left speculating based on the negatives?

[jdmeltz]

I'm not sure if Mary Brace's story is correct. It was my understanding that Jim Rowe purchased many of George Burke's negatives. Brace also worked with Burke and had many of his negatives as well.

Both would sell postcards to a collectors in the 70's and 80's. I bought hundreds if not thousands of postcards from Jim Rowe back then. I think I paid about 50 cents each. The ones from the original negatives were beautiful. I would mail them out to the old timers to get them autographed, and on several occasions the players would write me and ask where they could purchase copies of the photos. Once a former Yankee who played a few games in the 40's showed up at my house after getting a letter from me with a few photos from his playing days!

Rowe would sell 2 types of photos, those from original negatives and those that were copied from other photos. The copied photos weren't nearly as nice.

By the way...here is a quote from a 2006 SABR newsletter:

"JIM ROWE COLLECTION BEING AUCTIONED OFF

Sports Collectors Digest reports that the Lelands auction house is featuring 8,000 original George Burke negatives as well as both photos and negatives from Jim Rowe’s personal collection. The George Burke negatives are being sold in one lot. Rowe’s collection is being broken up into eight lots, with the most significant lot containing 25,000+ negatives. We can only hope that these two collections of negatives end up with buyers who will eventually make these historical items available to future researchers, but the odds probably aren’t great on that happening. Those who want to visit the Lelands website should go to http://www.lelands.com/ The auction on the Burke and Rowe items ends on December 14th."

[slidekellyslide]

There is some bitterness there between the families..I could tell that from her email, but I won't post her email word for word on the forum. We may never know exactly what the circumstances are as both Rowe and Burke are now gone...I think what is most important to know is that these items were made in the 1960's to early 80's time period. The Rowe postcards are confusing to many collectors who run across them for the first time because the Kodak backed postcard paper he used dated back to the late 1940s.

[abrahamrudy]

Originally Posted by jdmeltz

Once a former Yankee who played a few games in the 40's showed up at my house after getting a letter from me with a few photos from his playing days!

That is INCREDIBLY cool. Why does that never happen to me?

So does anybody know how Rowe produced the cards? Were they based on orders he received? Or did he publish a catalog of what was available? Because if there is a catalog, then there is a comprehensive list. But if he just printed them to meet orders, the negatives are the only list.

[JLange]

Found this ad in a 1974 copy of a collector mag, Sports Scoops. I am sure he advertised in other mags of the period as well. I didn't realize that Jim Rowe was the source for the T200 Fatima reprint Postcards. I bought the Cleveland T200 PC a few years back and only now figured it out!

The ad mentions that he had a free 6-page list of PCs and a free sample!

[maddy62]

Thank you jdmeltz. I think you are more on the right track in saying that Mary Brace's story may not be exactly accurate. I happen to know that Mr. Rowe did not disappear off to Florida. He lived in his same home for many many years and in fact attended Mr Brace's funeral, and gave Mrs. Brace condolences and probably attended the after reception. Rest assured the negatives are most likely in the hands of the rightful owners.

[Exhibitman]

I think I have a couple; really liked both images. Same backs and same handwriting:

[Mungo Hungo]

Originally Posted by maddy62

Thank you jdmeltz. I think you are more on the right track in saying that Mary Brace's story may not be exactly accurate. I happen to know that Mr. Rowe did not disappear off to Florida. He lived in his same home for many many years and in fact attended Mr Brace's funeral, and gave Mrs. Brace condolences and probably attended the after reception. Rest assured the negatives are most likely in the hands of the rightful owners.

Someone named BBC Emporium is now selling off the Jim Rowe negatives on eBay. Typing in "Medium Frame Negative - Jim Rowe Archive," you'll get "10,000+ results."

This seems like a great source for cataloguing the Rowe releases, but it would be a tough task, as there are no dates associated with the negatives.

[maddy62]

I knew Jim Rowe. I knew him well. He was an avid collector since he was a very young man. Mr Rowe and Mr. Brace were long time friends and collaborated on many projects. At some ooint Mr. Rowe acquired a number of negatives from Mr. Brace and he became more and more invovled in photograghy beginning in the 60's. He made photos for other collectors, many that were autographed. He corresponded with many of the baseball players as well, who requested photos of themselves to use to distribute to their fans. He also provided photos to the Baseball hall of fame in cooperstown for many oldtimers as they were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Mr Rowe himself was named as a honorary hall of famer for his many contributions. He was a walking encyclopedia of baseball statistics and trivia. He had a great talent for writing and would use that talent on many occasions to help promote some of the oldtimers into the hall of fame. So to answer your question. yes he was definitely a collector, and was one a a group of collector friends in the Chicago area to start the very first baseball collectors show. And yes, he believed that any man who wore the uniform, had a story to tell and was worth having a photo. And yes he was a die hard Cub fan, which is why many of his photos are Chicago based. Hope this helps.