Earliest Babe Ruth Photo?

[Snapolit1]

Here's an early childhood photo of Ruth that Heritage sold a few years ago.

Hair noticeably darker but I see some similarities in the hair and rather large ears for a child.

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Here's an early childhood photo of Ruth that Heritage sold a few years ago.

Hair noticeably darker but I see some similarities in the hair and rather large ears for a child.

Makes the mystery a little deeper.
It looks like a girl to me also.
Hope we are wrong because that would by amazing

[Frankish]

Very interesting photo. The text on the album page is great but doesn't suggest to me that the photo includes Babe. The way I read it, the whole page is captioned as Babe & His Family, with the top photo being Babe and the bottom photo his family.

Of course, that doesn't eliminate the possibility that head peeking up from the bottom is Ruth. However, the facts that the person isn't identified as Ruth (where clearly the page is meant to highlight Babe) and that she (or he) is standing against Ruth's aunt rather than his mother, leads me to believe that the head more likely belongs to another child. If memory serves, Babe grew up with five or six cousins (same house, same street, I can't remember which) and his aunt Annie, pictured here with the child, had at least one daughter.

[roarfrom34]

you should contact Mike Gibbons at the Babe Ruth Museum

[ThomasL]

is it possible it was once a larger photo that someone cut in order to have a separate photo of kids at the bottom half which would have included Babe?

Kind of looks like it was trimmed there to me idk

[Frankish]

If I were researching the photo, one of the first things I would do is try to figure out the approximate date of the image. Between the clothing style and comparing the apparent ages of Ruth's parents and aunt to other photos with known dates, one could narrow it down to a few years. If the date matches a time when Babe might have been the age of the boy/girl in the photo, I would keep researching. If not (for instance if it is from a similar date as the photo that used to be above it, when Ruth was 20), it doesn't make much sense to speculate about the kid being the babe....

[oldeboo]

I believe the image is circa 1905. The girl in the bottom left is likely Ellen Brundige born January 1899, daughter of Milton and Annie Brundige. I believe Babe Ruth was likely already sent off to St. Mary’s Industrial School when this image was taken, although that alone would not exclude him. The separate image of young Babe Ruth resembles several characteristics of his father. Likewise, the young girl resembles Annie Brundige. If that is a child in front of George Ruth, it would likely be Mamie Ruth born August 1900. Mamie Ruth was born a year and a half after Ellen Brundige, so the size difference between the two matches. Because of his situation, there probably were not many images of Babe Ruth taken during his childhood.