Boston Bloomers Women's Baseball Team PC

[aelefson]

Hi-
I recently acquired the Boston Bloomers postcard scanned below and I was wondering if anyone might be able to help with a few questions I have:
1. The postcard appears to have been sent to someone by one of the players on the team. The back reads in part, "Hello Deck! We are still playing ball ? today (10) ? innings? 4-3 ? pitching". I think it is signed by L.G.
Could this be the owner L J Galbreath? Does anyone have a list of players who played for this team in 1909?
2 Does anyone recognize any of the men on the postcard? I know I read that a few Major Leaguers played for women's teams back then. I doubt there are any recognizable players pictured but I figured I would ask.
3. Any additional information that could be provided regarding this item or the Boston Bloomers team would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Alan Elefson
aelefson@hotmail.com

[MGHPro]

Alan
Nice postcard.. Can't help you out much but I do have this Broadside featuring the team
Matt

[aelefson]

Thanks Matt! That is a really cool broadside. Any idea on a specific year for it? I wonder how long Needham was the manager?

[jthorn]

I believe the male ballplayer seated in the front is Smoky Joe Wood, who signed with the Boston Bloomer Girls in 1905 or 1906 (at age 91 he said he was 15 when he signed with the Bloomer Girls, which would make the year 1905). He did not sign with the Red Sox until 1908.

john thorn

[jthorn]

More on this. I know the postcard was dated 1909 but the photograph may well have been taken earlier. Rogers Hornsby also played with a Bloomer Girls squad, though not necessarily the one from Boston. See attached for how well known was the mixed-gender status of the club.

john thorn

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by jthorn

I believe the male ballplayer seated in the front is Smoky Joe Wood, who signed with the Boston Bloomer Girls in 1905 or 1906 (at age 91 he said he was 15 when he signed with the Bloomer Girls, which would make the year 1905). He did not sign with the Red Sox until 1908.

john thorn

I had this conversation a few years ago with Joann Kline when this same postcard showed up on ebay. I believed it to be Wood also, Joann did not...the price the card sold for indicated that I was not alone in my belief as it sold well above what most Boston Bloomer cards sell for. I believe that Wood started his career with a Western Bloomer club located in Kansas City at age 15 and later played for the Boston Bloomers for a short while in 08 just before he got called up to Red Sox in late 1908. There is a famous photo with Wood and the Boston Bloomers in front of a trolley car that I believe is in the Ken Burns Baseball book. I can't say for 100% that it's him in this postcard, but I think it just might be.

[aelefson]

Hi-
Thanks Dan and John! I had heard Wood played for a few women's teams but I had no idea he might be on this postcard. In fact, I bought it and a Western Bloomers postcard showing Maude Nelson from an antique dealer and he made no mention of a potential major leaguer or of Maude. I am hoping Mark might be able to help with this. If needed, I can provide a higher resolution scan of the postcard.
Thanks again,
Alan

[Brian Campf]

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[jthorn]

Wood himself stated to interviewer Joan Whaley, for an article published in Baseball Digest in May 1981, that he signed with the Boston Bloomer Girls at age 15. That he started playing with the Bloomer Girls in KC is likely. On page 157 of Glory of Their Times, the basis I suspect for later claims that he joined the Kansas City Bloomer Girls, Wood tells Ritter that he joined a TOURING Bloomer Girls club at the end of 1906.

john thorn

[slidekellyslide]

I checked my Ken Burns book and the photo is of Wood with the Western Bloomer Girls. I think in the Red Sox encyclopedia they mention Wood playing with the Boston Bloomers in 1908.

[jthorn]

Whoops I meant write "That he started playing with the Bloomer Girls in KC is UNlikely." My reason for thinking this is that the owner of the Bloomer Girls club for which he played was, according to the "well-researched SABR biography," Logan Galbreath (not "Galbraith"), pictured in the postcard! He owned/managed the Boston Bloomer Girls baseball team from 1905-1925 and toured the midwest, southwest, and California. Babe Pinelli and Rogers Hornsby are among the future major leaguers to play with the Boston National Bloomer Girls Base Ball Club, who appear to have been confused in recent books with a perhaps nonexistent entity called the "National Bloomer Girls Base Ball Club."

I believe this error has been propagated on the net and in other scholarly titles beyond Robert Elias's 2006 book, which I believe is the first to make the claim. To prove me wrong--which would be perfectly fine with me--find a contemporaneous source (even pre-1960 would be OK) stating, as Elias does, without sourcing, that Wood started with a Bloomer Girls club based in Kansas City, Kansas.

john thorn

[jthorn]

Specifically to the point about the Western Bloomer Girls portrayed on page 19 of Ken Burns's Baseball, note that the Western Bloomer Girls were formed by Maud Nelson, not Galbreath ... in 1911. The man at the far right in the image is NOT Joe Wood. The caption identifies him as a "future pitching star" but by 1911 he was entering his fourth year in the majors and certainly did not moonlight with the girls... I think Walter Johnson, however, may be posed at the middle!

john thorn

[jmk59]

Hi guys,

Dan and I did discuss whether the guy in the front row was Wood. I don't remember the details of the quick search I did on it, but for some reason I think the timing was wrong for him to be in this particular photo. But Dan is definitely correct in that the price for this card was a clear indication that other bidders thought it was Wood. It was the most I've paid, by far, for any Bloomer Girls team PC.

I don't know that there are any published or easily available lists of players on any of the Bloomer teams. Someday when I retire, I think I will go to all of these towns and really try to do a newspaper deep dive and try to figure it out. I have a lot of images of Bloomer teams. I haven't sat down and studied them closely, but offhand it looks like some of the people are in the photos for different teams (although it's a little hard to tell b/c hairstyles are all similar - that's why I'd need to really sit down and look at it).

The confusion on the teams and league as a whole is increased by the fact that people use some of the terms generically. Some people use "Western Bloomers" to describe any Bloomer team, when in fact Western Bloomers were a specific team that was from SW Michigan. Also, some people use the phrase "Bloomer" to describe any female team image, when in fact the true Bloomer teams were loosely organized in a league at times, and at minimum specifically named themselves "Bloomer" teams. There were many, many female teams at that time that were not associated with any Bloomer teams.

So any research or even thinking I do is tied closely to the identification of the team on the image. (Meaning, I don't try to find info on a "Bloomer team" unless the image specifically says that it's a Bloomer team, etc.)

Any image with one or all of the players identified are quite tough, and I go after those in particular because some day it may make it easier to match names with faces. Maud Nelson (some think her last name was Olson) is probably the easiest to find identified, but there are a few others here and there.

Maud's husband founded the All-Nation's team (something like that) near Chicago at about that time. Maud played for a Chicago team and then started the Western Bloomers after she was either done playing or late in her career. I'm a bit rusty and doing this from memory, but I think some of the loosely organized Bloomer teams either pre-1900 or immediately after were generically Star Bloomer teams, but that was probably the last generic name?

And finally, john thorn, I LOVE that Bloomer Girl cartoon. Last year I rented ... what was it? Pollyanna, maybe? But it had a Mickey Mouse short at the front of the DVD, and the short had Mickey in the Gay 90's - all dressed in knickers, etc. It starts out with him walking through a park to meet a girl while "Merry Merry Month of May" is playing. At the side of the path is this HUGE billboard that I swear has that exact same cartoon image of the Bloomer Girls on it! Not the whole cartoon - just the part of the poster they are looking at. The players were facing left, so it would be mirror image, and it is in color and advertising a game. I don't know if it is an exact mirror match, but it is 100% the exact same style. That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen - Thanks so much for posting it.

A few things posted before, but not in awhile. I'm limited to five so I'll try to pick. You can see that there is some variation in how teams are named and what the uniform says.

Joann

[slidekellyslide]

Great stuff Joann...one thing though, I don't think that Maud Nelson's husband founded the All Nations team. That team was founded by JL Wilkinson who you know managed the Hopkins Bros. Ladies baseball team.

[dwinters]

Star Bloomer Girls Baseball Club of 437 Indian Ave. Indianapolis, Ind.

[jmk59]

Oh shoot - who am I thinking of then? It was some kind of international or maybe Native American team? I'll have to poke around and see. But he had founded some specialty touring team like that. You're right on All-Nations, though. That was Wilkerson. Now the Nelson team is going to drive me nuts until I think of it.

And Dennis, that's a great Indy Stars PC. Note that one of mine is also Indy Stars and shows a different address. I wonder if it's different years - must be. Does the street address show on the reverse of yours?

J

[jmk59]

OK. I got it. Her husband's name was John Olson, and he founded the Cherokee Indian Baseball Club. You can even get a T-shirt of a broadside on negroleagueshop.com.

See? That's what happens when you hit 50 and try to do things from memory.

J

[slidekellyslide]

Heh....that should have come to me when you mentioned that Maud Nelson's last name was actually Olson. I'm well acquainted with the Olson Cherokee team.

[aelefson]

Thank you everyone for the lively discussions on this team! I will post a higher resolution scan of the postcard as well as a Star Bloomers one I picked up with it later this evening. I really appreciate all of the information!
Alan

[Shat5]

Originally Posted by aelefson

Hi-
I recently acquired the Boston Bloomers postcard scanned below and I was wondering if anyone might be able to help with a few questions I have:
1. The postcard appears to have been sent to someone by one of the players on the team. The back reads in part, "Hello Deck! We are still playing ball ? today (10) ? innings? 4-3 ? pitching". I think it is signed by L.G.
Could this be the owner L J Galbreath? Does anyone have a list of players who played for this team in 1909?
2 Does anyone recognize any of the men on the postcard? I know I read that a few Major Leaguers played for women's teams back then. I doubt there are any recognizable players pictured but I figured I would ask.
3. Any additional information that could be provided regarding this item or the Boston Bloomers team would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Alan Elefson
aelefson@hotmail.com

Hello Alan--

Part of the difficulty in answering any questions about the Boston Bloomer team is that there there were at least two, and possibly three, teams that called themselves the Boston Bloomer Girls between 1893 and 1909, each of which was owned and managed by a different person. I haven't been able to totally sort this out yet, but I am working on it for a chapter in my upcoming book on early women baseball players. Here is an overview of what I have pieced together so far:

W. P. Needham organized a Boston Bloomer Girl team in 1893. This is cited in articles in the Sheridan Post in 1897, the Utica Daily Press in July 1902, the Waterloo Daily Reporter on 10 Sep 1902, and the Kerkhoven [Minnesota] Banner on June 3, 1904.

An article in the Des Moines Register on April 7, 1996 says that there was also a “Boston Bloomer Girls” team created in Des Moines, IA in 1902 by J.L. “Wilkie” Wilkinson, the man who, in 1912 created the “All-Nations Team”. The Des Moines-based Boston Bloomer Girls team often wore uniforms identifying them as the “Hopkins Brothers Champion Lady Baseball Club.” Players included Celia Brown (1b), Lucy Hale (ss), and “Carrie Nation” (lf). There is a Celia Brown on the BBG featuring Maud Nelson in 1900 so I’m not sure if the Des Moines article is right or not. It’s possible there were two BBG teams and that Brown moved from one to the other. In April 1909, the Des Moines paper reported that Wilkinson had obtained the services of "J.E. Gaul, who has been connected with the Needham’s Boston Bloomer Girls for ten seasons." This confirms that Wilkinson's team was still playing in 1909 and it appears that Needham's team may also have still been playing.

L. J. Galbreath's name is also associated with a Boston Bloomer Girls team per the postcard and other sources. For example, “Amateur Baseball,” Los Angeles Herald (14 Oct 1909), p. 12. [CDNC]. “The Boston National Bloomer Girls’ baseball team, which recently defeated San Bernadino, wishes to arrange games with any club within 100 miles of Los Angeles having inclosed grounds. Answer through the Herald or communicate with L. J. [sic?] Galbreath, general delivery, Los Angeles.” It is possibly that Galbreath had bought the Hopkins Bros. team from Wilkinson because immediately following the article about Galbreath trying to find games for his team in California are other articles referencing the Hopkins Bros. club playing in California.

As I mentioned above, my research is a work in progress, so my final conclusions may change as more primary sources come to light on the teams calling themselves "Boston Bloomer Girls" in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Deb Shattuck

[dwinters]

Joann, the example that I have above has the address listed on the back. It also has all the members listed by name and position.

[Shat5]

I found one more reference to L.J. Galbreath in my notes. It is a lengthy article about Galbreath that was published in an unknown newspaper in 1951. It states that Galbreath owned and managed a Boston Bloomer Girls team from 1905-1925 from his headquarters in Kansas City, KS.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by Shat5

I found one more reference to L.J. Galbreath in my notes. It is a lengthy article about Galbreath that was published in an unknown newspaper in 1951. It states that Galbreath owned and managed a Boston Bloomer Girls team from 1905-1925 from his headquarters in Kansas City, KS.

Interesting, that certainly makes it a possibility that Wood is pictured on that postcard.

[aelefson]

Wow! Thank you to everyone! Your posts provided me with much more information than I hoped for when starting this thread! I assumed that the Boston Blomers were a Boston based team and it is fantastic to learn otherwise through other posters' excellent research. I wanted to post my higher resolution (600dpi) scan of the pc but I think Net54 will automatically resize it. If someone needs it, just send me your email and I will send the higher resolution scan. Thanks again for the excellent information!
Yours in collecting,
Alan Elefson
aelefson@hotmail.com

[Brian Campf]

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[HBroll]

my star bloomer example

[ksfarmboy]

I'm still sticking with no on both. That looks like Addie Joss in the top pc bottom left though. Here's three early Joe Wood photos to compare them with.

[slidekellyslide]

Whoa...that does look like Addie Joss!

[Brian Campf]

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[Brian Campf]

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[bmarlowe1]

OK - here's a game I like to play - which face is not like the others?

[Kawika]

Joe Wood, Joe Wood, Joe Wood, Joe Wood, Joe Jackson.

Originally Posted by bmarlowe1

OK - here's a game I like to play - which face is not like the others?

[Hankphenom]

On the "Glory Of Their Times" audio set, Wood can be heard to say in outlining a chronology of his career before the Red Sox that he was signed by Logan Galbreath to the National Bloomer Girls team out of Kansas City, then emphasizes to Ritter, "this was NOT the Boston Bloomer Girls team."
Hank Thomas

[Shat5]

Logan Galbreath operated a team called the National Bloomer Girls and another one (at a different time) called the Boston Bloomer Girls. There was also a second Boston Bloomer Girls team operating concurrently which prompted Galbreath to advertise his as the "Original Boston Bloomer Girls." I am still trying to sort through all the various Bloomer Girl teams and managers for the chapter on Bloomer teams I will be including in my book.

Did Joe Wood happen to give the year he signed with the "National" Bloomer Girls?

Deb Shattuck

[Shat5]

I just noticed one more thing on the postcard of Logan's Boston Bloomer Girls team. The caption says, "National" Bloomer Girls but the uniforms say "Boston Bloomer Girls." When Joe Wood was clarifying that his team was NOT the Boston Bloomer Girls, he may have been trying to distinguish it from the copy-cat organization. Just a thought. I'll need to do more research to nail that down.

Deb Shattuck

[Hankphenom]

Wood says that the National Bloomers Girls played a game against his Ness City, Kansas, town team in the fall of 1906 and after the game Logan Galbreath offered him a contract for the last three weeks of the Bloomers' season at $21 per week. "These were not the Boston Bloomer Girls," he says. Wood adds that there were two other men on the team, a third baseman they called Lady Madison and a pitcher called Lady Waddell whose real name was Compton. They wore wigs, but not Wood. He also singles out Ruth Egan as the "one real good [woman] player" on the team. She played first base with a catcher's mitt. The girls sold postcards of the team. It's possible that Wood played later with the Boston Bloomers, of course, but it doesn't seem likely he wouldn't have mentioned that fact to Ritter.

[Shat5]

I've been reviewing my notes and have a couple more tidbits of info to share. Galbreath organized a team called the "Cleveland Bloomer Girls" in 1905. In July of that year he signed 12-year old pitcher, Ruth Egan, to play for him. Egan had been featured in a number of newspaper articles in the Kansas City area where Galbreath lived. Articles about the Cleveland Bloomer Girls state that Galbreath was "the former Missouri Valley League magnate." In 1906, Galbreath's team is called alternately the "Kansas City Bloomer Girls," the "National Bloomer Girls" and the "Boston Bloomer Girls." I also have information on a "Kansas City Bloomer Girls" team which was playing in 1903 but I don't think Galbreath was affiliated with that team. Interestingly, even as Galbreath's new "National Bloomer Girls" team was playing games in 1906, another "Cleveland Bloomer Girls" team was playing. A box score from one of its games lists only two female players. It seems likely this was a copy-cat team trying to capitalize on the success of other Bloomer teams like Maud Nelson's Star Bloomers, W.P. Neeham's Boston Bloomers, and Galbreath's National Bloomers which were all playing that year.

As for Joe Wood, as best I can tell, Galbreath came to Ness City with his team on August 27, 1906 and hired Wood to play the last 3 weeks of the season. Wood later recalled he had played with Egan. It appears Wood only played a very short time with Galbreath's team since other biographical information on him shows the following:

[Wood went on to play for the Hutchinson Salt Packers in 1907. That fall he signed with the American Association Kansas City Blues. He pitched 24 games for them in the 1908 season before the Boston Red Sox bought his contract. He played for Boston and Cleveland until 1922.]

If he only played with Galbreath's team for 3 weeks in 1906, it seems unlikely that the postcards discussed above depict Wood. The one showing the "National Bloomer Girls" MIGHT be Wood, but the others which were likely taken after 1906 probably don't include him unless he played part of the year with Galbreath's team before signing with the Hutchinson Salt Packers.

Ain't history fun?

Deb Shattuck

[ephus]

Originally Posted by bmarlowe1

OK - here's a game I like to play - which face is not like the others?

I can't confirm or deny that the last picture to the right is Joe Wood, but he certainly has a Joe wood look to him right down to his hat tilting to the right. From most of the pictures (one that comes to mind is his 1914-15 Cracker Jack) I have seen of him (with a hat) he always had it tilted that way, just like the first two pictures to the far left.

P.s. This is a great thread to read, great info and conversation.

[Brian Campf]

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