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Photo, Print, Drawing Champions of America / Williamson, Brooklyn.

[ digital file from original photo ]

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[ digital file from color film copy transparency ]
[ digital file from b&w film copy neg. ]

About this Item

Title

  • Champions of America / Williamson, Brooklyn.

Summary

  • Early baseball card prototype showing ten members of the Atlantics of Brooklyn baseball club. From American Treasures exhibition: "Baseball, America's national pastime, evolved from a child's game to an organized sport in the 1840s and 1850s. It was an urban sport, and the first teams were established in New York City and Brooklyn. By 1860 baseball had replaced cricket as the nation's most popular ball game. Before the Civil War, more than one hundred baseball teams played in the New York City area. During the war, the number of teams dwindled to fewer than thirty, but thousands of spectators flocked to games. The Brooklyn Atlantics dominated early baseball by winning championships in 1861, 1864, and 1865. The Atlantics usually crushed their competition, scoring two or three times more runs than their opponents. The game was an amateur sport: according to the rules of the National Association of Base Ball Players, athletes could not accept wages to play ball, although gifts and jobs were sometimes offered as a means of compensation. Baseball cards as we know them did not become commonplace until the 1880s. This early prototype is actually an original photograph mounted on a card. At the start of the 1865 season, the Atlantics presented opposing teams with framed photographs of the "Champion Nine." The Scottish-born photographer Charles H. Williamson opened a daguerreotype studio in Brooklyn in 1851, continuing to work as a photographer until his death in 1874."

Names

  • Williamson, C. H. (Charles H.), 1826-1874, photographer

Created / Published

  • Brooklyn, [New York] : c1865.

Headings

  • -  Baseball players--New York (State)--New York--1860-1870

Headings

  • Albumen prints--1860-1870.
  • Group portraits--1860-1870.
  • Portrait photographs--1860-1870.

Genre

  • Portrait photographs--1860-1870
  • Group portraits--1860-1870
  • Albumen prints--1860-1870

Notes

  • -  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by Chas. H. Williamson, in the Clerk's Office of the District Cour[t] of the United States, of the Eastern District of New York.
  • -  Reference copy available in LOT 4432-A.
  • -  Transfer; United States District Court, Eastern District of New York.
  • -  Published in: American Treasures in the Library of Congress: Memory, Reason, Imagination. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997, p. 156-157.
  • -  Published in: Eyes of the nation : a visual history of the United States / Vincent Virga and curators of the Library of Congress ; historical commentary by Alan Brinkley. New York : Knopf, 1997.
  • -  Published in: Baseball Americana : treasures from the Library of Congress / Harry Katz, et al. New York : Smithsonian Books, 2009.
  • -  Exhibited: "Baseball Americana" at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., June 2018-June 2019.

Medium

  • 1 photographic print : albumen ; sheet 11.5 x 15.3 cm.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • PH - Williamson (C.), no. 1 (AA size) (LOCKED) [P&P]

Repository

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 92514548

Reproduction Number

  • LC-DIG-ppmsca-09310 (digital file from original photo) LC-USZC4-4572 (color film copy transparency) LC-USZ62-94553 (b&w film copy neg.)

Rights Advisory

  • No known restrictions on publication; no copyright renewal.

Access Advisory

Online Format

  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

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While the Library is unaware of any U.S. copyright protection (see Title 17, U.S.C.) or any other restrictions on the materials reproduced in the By Popular Demand: Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights 1860s-1960s (except where indicated in the information that accompanies certain items), there may be content protected by copyright or neighboring-rights laws of other nations. Additionally there may be restrictions placed by donors on the use of materials.

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Some of the materials included in the By Popular Demand: Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s, were given to the Library of Congress subject to certain conditions. The Library obtained permission to use any materials included in this presentation that are subject to such conditions. Contact the appropriate custodial division of the Library of Congress for more information about such possible restrictions.

Credit line: Library of Congress, [Name of the appropriate custodial division within the Library], Reproduction number (e.g., LC-USZC4-6142)

Contact the Prints & Photographs Division for further information about materials from these collections.

  • Look Magazine Photograph Collection. Reproduction of material is "not for trade or advertising purposes."
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Contact the Manuscript Division for further information about materials from these collections.

  • Arthur Mann Papers, Literary rights are reserved to the heirs of Mrs. Marion Mann until January 2017.
  • Branch Rickey Papers, Literary rights reserved to heirs of Branch Rickey.
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  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication; no copyright renewal.
  • Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-09310 (digital file from original photo) LC-USZC4-4572 (color film copy transparency) LC-USZ62-94553 (b&w film copy neg.)
  • Call Number: PH - Williamson (C.), no. 1 (AA size) (LOCKED) [P&P]
  • Access Advisory: Served only by appointment because the material requires special handling. For more information, see: Materials Designated "Served by Appointment Only," https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/info/617_apptonly.html

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Williamson, C. H, photographer. Champions of America / Williamson, Brooklyn. New York, ca. 1865. [Brooklyn, New York:] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/92514548/.

APA citation style:

Williamson, C. H., photographer. (ca. 1865) Champions of America / Williamson, Brooklyn. New York, ca. 1865. [Brooklyn, New York:] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/92514548/.

MLA citation style:

Williamson, C. H, photographer. Champions of America / Williamson, Brooklyn. [Brooklyn, New York:] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/92514548/>.