Napoleon Lajoie photo by Louis Van Oeyen

[billyb]

Andrew,
That is a great Lajoie photo.

The Western Reserve Historical Society has a VanOyen Collection of photos that came our of the archives of the Cleveland Press where VanOyen worked, but many of the photos were taken before that newspaper went out of business.
I have a list of photos by VanOyen, but there is only seven LaJoie photos in the collection. Six give descriptions that do not match yours, but a seventh one does not have much of a description.
It only states "Cleveland's Peerless Baseball Leader", and states it was on the front page of the Plain Dealer, year of 1908, no exact date. The folder number is 2053. You can call them and with any luck, maybe you can find a match. It may be just the negative in their file.
Good Luck.

[WillowGrove]

Wow Bill, that's great information.

I checked Marc Okkonen's Uniform book and looking at Indians unis from 1902-1914 when Nap was with them, it has to be a road uniform and is most likely from 1905.

I say most likely because although the shows that year as being gray, the uniform style, hat, and socks match. All the other years either the uniform is different, or the hat and socks dont match.

This said, maybe it was spring training (did Van Oyen travel w the team?) and Nap was wearing any old uniform, or he wore different socks that day, etc.

Hope this helps.

[billyb]

Andrew,
Going through the VanOyen inventory list, there are many unknown players with these photos. It was apparent, VanOyen did not mark all his photos with the players names. After his passing, depending on who handled these photos for listing them in this index, they may not have recognized Lajoie.
So to be on the safe side, I want to send you two other possibilities. The first is in folder #2204, which lists the following.

Unidentified baseball player, Cleveland
Unidentified baseball player, Cleveland, n.d.
Unidentified baseball player, holding a bat, posing for camera.

The second one in Folder #2206 states;

Unidentified baseball player, n.d.
Unidentified baseball player, n.d.
Unidentified baseball player, holding a bat, posing for camera

There is no year for either photo. The first one does sound interesting. It may not help in for what information you are looking for, but who knows.

I noticed that Getty images also has the same photo, just to let you know, many of the VanOyen photos in the VanOyen collection, the image is owned by Getty. Getty bought out all the photos from the Cleveland Press when they folded, but for some reason, many of the images owned by Getty ended up in the WRHS.

I hope this helps, good luck.

[TCMA]

Originally Posted by billyb

I have a list of photos by VanOyen, but there is only seven LaJoie photos in the collection. Six give descriptions that do not match yours, but a seventh one does not have much of a description.

It only states "Cleveland's Peerless Baseball Leader", and states it was on the front page of the Plain Dealer, year of 1908, no exact date. The folder number is 2053.

Bill, thanks for that GREAT info. I will definitely be in touch with them this week. Will update this thread when they get back to me.




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[prewarsports]

People forget the Great Van Oeyen was just a diminutive little guy with a floppy hat and glasses who worked at a newspaper, no different really than a copy-editor or obituary writer at the time. The vast majority of his work (and I mean at LEAST 90%++) was never credited and a lot of the NEA sports stuff after WWI through the 1930's was taken by him. Every now and then you see something with his name on it, but from 1918-1930's and beyond, he was just a salaried employee in Cleveland living in a small house, and working in a small office, taking daily assignments to take pictures of... whatever the newspaper wanted him to do. Most of the images taken by him were developed by other guys at the newspaper and identified by others off his negatives. Only the early stuff and a small vein in the 1920's and 1930's actually bears his handwriting on the back for the most part. It is sad that these guys were forgotten for so long, but researching them and their photography now 100 years later is almost impossible. Even the library that has his "collection" knows next to nothing about his life and photography.

[horzverti]

Originally Posted by prewarsports

People forget the Great Van Oeyen was just a diminutive little guy with a floppy hat and glasses who worked at a newspaper, no different really than a copy-editor or obituary writer at the time. The vast majority of his work (and I mean at LEAST 90%++) was never credited and a lot of the NEA sports stuff after WWI through the 1930's was taken by him. Every now and then you see something with his name on it, but from 1918-1930's and beyond, he was just a salaried employee in Cleveland living in a small house, and working in a small office, taking daily assignments to take pictures of... whatever the newspaper wanted him to do. Most of the images taken by him were developed by other guys at the newspaper and identified by others off his negatives. Only the early stuff and a small vein in the 1920's and 1930's actually bears his handwriting on the back for the most part. It is sad that these guys were forgotten for so long, but researching them and their photography now 100 years later is almost impossible. Even the library that has his "collection" knows next to nothing about his life and photography.

Thanks for the info Rhys. I love learning more about the early baseball photogs.

[TCMA]

Originally Posted by prewarsports

People forget the Great Van Oeyen was just a diminutive little guy with a floppy hat and glasses who worked at a newspaper, no different really than a copy-editor or obituary writer at the time. The vast majority of his work (and I mean at LEAST 90%++) was never credited and a lot of the NEA sports stuff after WWI through the 1930's was taken by him. Every now and then you see something with his name on it, but from 1918-1930's and beyond, he was just a salaried employee in Cleveland living in a small house, and working in a small office, taking daily assignments to take pictures of... whatever the newspaper wanted him to do. Most of the images taken by him were developed by other guys at the newspaper and identified by others off his negatives. Only the early stuff and a small vein in the 1920's and 1930's actually bears his handwriting on the back for the most part. It is sad that these guys were forgotten for so long, but researching them and their photography now 100 years later is almost impossible. Even the library that has his "collection" knows next to nothing about his life and photography.

Yes, great info here that I for one would not have known otherwise.

In other news, I did come across another great Van Oeyen image today, of Willie Keeler.


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[TCMA]

Found it in the 1906 Lajoie Base Ball Guide: