Baseball History Through Photography - Dags. to Wire Service Photos 1858-1958, Rucker
 

This is a paid advertisement. Thanks to Mark for allowing Net54baseball to help spread the word about what looks to be a really nice set of books. Mark might come back and answer questions if there are any or his contact info is below.
thanks

My name is Mark Rucker, and I have spent the last 30 years hunting for the earliest, the most obscure, and the rarest of baseball images. I have specialized in photography, since it provides a window into the past unlike anything else. In amassing a database of tens of thousands of baseball images I have gained a view of the continuity and complexity of baseball history. I was in the forefront of finding and researching 19th Century baseball images, CdVs, cabinet cards, tintypes, etc, exploring new territory in the game’s history. Later, needing more frontiers to explore, I ventured to Cuba, gathering images to create the first pictorial history of the Island game. The coincidence of the development of baseball and the birth of photography is too fabulous to ignore. I have tried for more than a decade to convince publishers that there should be a book to document the parallel histories. Since no one has been willing to take on the project, I was forced to wait for technology to allow the creation of on-demand color pictorial hardcover books.

Using a publishing machine in New York City I am capable of producing hard cover books that are photographically loaded from start to finish. I decided to produce a volume to cover each genre of photographic baseball history. Cartes-de-visites, cabinet cards, stereo views, tintypes and hard images, real photo postcards, and news bureau photography each has its own volume. These books are expensive. They cannot be ordered in quantity at a discount. They are printed one at a time, each copy costing me over 160.00. My only hope of selling copies is to adopt the Limited Edition model - keeping the number of each book to nine copies. I am essentially doubling the price to me, in offering the books to collectors. After nine copies of each book is sold, no more will ever be printed. There is a discount offered if the entire series is purchased.


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I have Volume One on Baseball CdV's and the quality is extraordinary. There are many new images of early baseball photography I've never seen before. Really exceptional..and I admit I'm biased as Mark is a very dear friend.

Can you post a sample page and list how many pages there are in each book? What images in the carte book are different than in your soft cover book?

I'd certainly be interested in a set if I could get a 'taste' first..

Best of luck to Mark. Mark’s little auction many years ago is still my favorite and it’s also the one that got me started collecting vintage baseball material.

Rob M

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I can't speak for Mark but I have a feeling he isn't around a computer almost every second of the year as many of us are. So please be a tiny bit patient and I would be surprised if ya'll don't get some answers tomorrow.

Laying the book flat on the computer may hurt the spine. It contains all the pictures from the first book with a few dozen or so new images Mark has uncovered over the ensuing years. Some are nice generic images, others are quite significant. And the paper quality is far superior, with every page a thick glossy stock.

According to Leon's last post, it sounds like Mark will be on this thread at some point. He and his wife are running a farm in British Columbia. There are animals to feed and peaches to be picked. So he is indeed busy with non-baseball matters.

He sent me an email about 12am, this morning, saying he would respond today. He is not familiar with forums though so I have my work cut out for me :). I think our s/w has an easy learning curve. I already set him up an account so we shall see.

I hope Mark posts. He has a wealth of knowledge and a lot of great hobby stories to tell.

Barry-Are there attempts at identifying the players in the CdVs?

In those instances in which players are known and can be identified, yes. The 1875 Hartford CdV is completely identified, for example. In the case of a superb image or team that is worth including in the book but is otherwise unknown, it isn't.

Hopefully, Mark took this opportunity to correct the identification mistakes in the soft cover book.

Hopefully.

Crickets

I am away from the computer as much as possible, I must admit. I want to thank everyone for the warm welcome and for remembering who I am. Not a card collector, the photographic field and the card field interface just enough that I have gotten to know many of the Net54 members over the years. But this is my first attempt at communicating online with you. Leon is right - please be patient. I will try to keep up. I will attempt to post some interior pages of each book as examples. I can understand that these books could be hard to imagine - they are different. Here is more info about them -
The books are all 10” x 8” horizontal.
• CdV Book contains 74 pages, 108 images, 40 unpublished. Price 350.00
• Tintype Book contains 68 pages, 105 images, almost all unpublished. Price 325.00
• Cabinet Card Book contains 88 pages, 117 images, almost all unpublished. Price 350.00
• Stereo View Book contains 70 pages, 60 images, almost all unpublished. Price 325.00
• Real Photo Postcard Boor contains 98 pages, 141 images, almost all unpublished. Price 350.00
• News & Wire Service Photo Book contains 80 pages, with 75 full page images, almost all unpublished. Price 350.00

As to the identifications, I did miss Lipman Pike in the 1875 Hartford photo. Forgiveness requested. I also included in the volume the subsequent year for Cummings and the Blue Stockings, 1876.

Hi Mark- welcome to the board. Great to see you posting!

Hi Mark- Are there any ambroypes pictured in the hard inages tintype book?

The attempt to identify players is ever ongoing, but if a player is not a professional, our only hope is to find a name written on the back of the card. With someone like Curry Klunk, however, the name is nice to know but leads nowhere.

Are the RPPC's major league images or are local town teams included?

The selection is based mostly on aesthetics, as you will find postcards of major leaguers, minor leaguers, town teams, black players, native players, women players, cuban teams, players and more. It is a mixture of baseball images from the deadball era. I will be uploading some sample pages on Net54 shortly.

Are there hard images other than tintypes included?

Mark (hi Mark) sent this over earlier. This is as big as it is and if I make it larger it gets blurry....I have asked for a larger image.

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back to the keyboard
 

Just sent Leon some bigger files of sample pages, so they may be up soon.

Hi Gary. The Metallica book has four ambrotypes and one dag. The rest are tintypes that range from gem size to full plate.

One of the cartes in the CdV book came to me from Barry Sloate. The photo is a classic with the player holding his huge bat in his full, simple uniform. Quite recently on the internet, I was calling up cdv images when I saw the batter again, this time with an identification. He was referred to as Edward Dikeman. He looks a lot like Charlie Blackmon of the Rockies.

With a disclaimer, I included the name in his caption in the CdV book, but I know nothing of how this ID appeared. Is it another copy of the carte with a name written on the verso? Does anybody know?

I will try to upload the image.

files....the ones sent over larger were able to be made larger on the screen

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I thought I would give my thoughts as I purchased the set.

The individual volumes (six in total) are excellent. The picture and paper quality are very good, and Mark was inclusive in the images he selected. Accordingly as a research tool the volumes are very useful as one would be hard pressed to find many of the images in another publication. They also present sides of the game (e.g., woman playing baseball in the 19th century) that are rarely depicted and which put the game in a broader context.

The books by depicting different photographic processes serve too to well illustrate how photography evolved.

I recognize the books are not inexpensive, and are not for everybody. But if the set or individual volumes fit within your budget they are something you will get much enjoyment out of.

kind words from a cornerstone
 

Corey and one other collector have purchased a set of the books. I am very gratified to receive a good review from one of the cornerstones of the hobby, Corey Shanus. We have known each other a long time, all the way back to those early days of 19th Century discoveries, and along the way have had some extraordinary experiences. Corey and Barry Sloate have been my companions through many an adventure.

If more reviews of the books are possible, I will try to post them.

Hi Mark,
On another part of this board, we have a discussion going about the find of Harry Wright scorebooks. That is an adventure the three of us shared. Great memories!

Books for historians
 

I plan to bring the set of six books to the SABR convention in Pittsburgh later this month, along with other historical materials for sale. SABR members are the most active baseball book buyers anywhere. However, they will never have seen volumes like these.

I have also purchased a set of Mark's books. His 1988 Baseball Cartes - The First Baseball Cards has been an indispensable part of my hobby library for years, so I knew that his six-volume was going to be a must for me.

The books are of the highest quality. The breath of subjects included was a pleasant surprise to me. Instead of just picturing the hobby's famous images, Mark included an incredible variety of images within each book - from the Negro Leagues, to the House of David, to Cuban baseball, to Bloomer Girls..you get the point.

Most of the images were new to me and I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with each volume and appreciating the areas of collecting that have generally been foreign to me.

My collection of hobby reference material is very important to me and I do not think that it would be complete without Mark's books. The price is definitely on the steep side, but if your collection consists of these types of images then I think that this would make a great compliment to it.

well
 

I wrote Mark to purchase a copy of one of the books. I have not heard back...… I'm patient.

Email address update
 

This is Mark back on the thread. For everyone's info the email address for me is theruckerarchive@icloud.com. And also for your info I will NOT be attending SABR this year - I cracked a bone, and must stay home.

that's the one I used
 

sorry about your injuries. I should have sent a card :D I have emailed you again.

I am injured too Henry. I fell yesterday and have a bad ankle sprain. I thought I might have broken it at the time. I am wearing a protective boot and icing it. But I will still be in Florida in July.

Mark, feel better. Sorry about the crack.

ouch
 

hope it's not something "in the cards". Or worse - chemical leeching from old photos! Looking forward to it.

email that works
 

Henry - can you contact me about the book(s) at this email:
theruckerarchive@icloud.com. Thanks.
Barry - we are too old for this stuff!

Tell me about it. Hope you are not in too much pain. I'm healing well.

I posted my response
 

in the wrong thread and felt Mark deserved to hear how much I enjoyed my copy of the Tintype images reference. Easier than collecting the images themselves. It's a beautiful book...…….