top of page
Deacon McGuire, Philadelphia Quakers II

Deacon McGuire, Philadelphia Quakers II

ABOUT THIS COLLECTION  

The late 19th century was a period of enormous development and growth for baseball.  The game grew in popularity and the players of local clubs became recognizable figures not only from their play on the field but from the reports in the newspapers. Studio portraitists got involved by taking photographs featuring early baseball stars from the era seen here, which were reproduced and sold on cabinet cards, a style of photograph widely used after 1870, consisting of a thin photograph mounted on a card measuring 4 x 6.5 inches, the precursors to today’s baseball cards.

 

COLLECTION DETAILS

  • Series title: Photographs of Early Baseball Stars by G.E. Gray and William Frank Bacon
  • Series size: 16 artworks
  • Edition: Limited edition of 1000
  • Proof of Ownership: Certification on the Ethereum blockchain under the ERC1155 protocol. Each artwork is delivered privately and directly to collectors as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that guarantee proof of ownership.
  • Format: Pieces consist of PNG files sized 2160x3840 pixels - 150 dpi.
  • Medium: Photography
  • Artwork materials: Photography paper
  • Contract Address: 0x495f947276749ce646f68ac8c248420045cb7b5e
  • ID: 2749212597480566...

 

ABOUT THE ARTIST

These quirky portraits of baseball players from the late 1800s were taken by prominent studio photographers of the day—G.E. Gray in Boston and William Frank Bacon in Philadelphia. Both were accomplished craftsmen who tried to achieve “action” shots within the limits of camera technology at the time. The results are charmingly humorous. Gray seemed partial to creating moments where a player is preparing to catch the ball, suspended from the ceiling, in a seemingly hypnotized state, while Bacon has opted for a Victorian garden as a background. Both studios photographed famous performers, not only athletes, but authors and politicians. It was common practice for photographers to photograph the famous for free and then make their money by selling those portraits to the general public

 

COLLECTION CREDITS

  • Historical curatorship: HARI - Historical Art Research Institute (HARI Editions)
  • Artwork: G.E. Gray and William Frank Bacon
  • Year of original publication: ca. 1870s - 1880s
  • Post-production: HARI - Historical Art Research Institute (HARI Editions)
  • Digital art supervisor: Marie-Lou Desmeules
  • Editorial: Braden Phillips
  • Historical research: Evangelos Rosios, Braden Phillips
  • Executive production: Victor Zabrockis

 

RIGHTS OVERVIEW

  • Source of artwork: New York Public Library
  • Underlying work rights: No Known Restrictions
  • Digital copyrights: No Additional Rights

Find below the name of each of the 16 Artworks (historical NFTs) that are included in this collection:

 

  • 01. Ben Sanders, Philadelphia Quakers

  • 02. Deacon McGuire, Philadelphia Quakers

  • 03. Deacon McGuire, Philadelphia Quakers II

  • 04. Ben Sanders, Philadelphia Quakers II

  • 05. Joe Mulvey

  • 06. George Pinkney

  • 07. George Pinkney II

  • 08. George Pinkney

  • 09. Unidentified baseball player in dark uniform - catching form

  • 10. Unidentified baseball player in dark uniform - pitching form

  • 11. Jack Clements

  • 12. Unidentified baseball player in dark uniform - batting form

  • 13. Charlie Ferguson

  • 14. Jack Clements II

  • 15. Jim Fogarty, Philadelphia Quakers

  • 16. Mike McGeary, Philadelphia Athletics, 1874

You might also like

Can you support us?  Let us know. 

HARI's team of researchers is small but we will contact you within 24 hours in order to find out how you can support us in the quest to immortalise historical art 

bottom of page