Earliest smiles in baseball cards

[bxb]

In the old days, they had to hold still for a long time to do a photo, so it was too hard to hold a smile that long.

[brianp-beme]

I think some of the reason for the lack of smiles was the lower level of dental hygiene/care during that time frame...no need to reveal all the snaggled and broken choppers.

Brian (speaking of snaggling, I snaggled these two images, one from our Val and the other from the internet)

[dstudeba]

A move to the West Coast can make you smile.

[Mark]

Freshest man on earth smiles.

[drcy]

In the early days of photography (1800s) it took a bit of time to take the photos, which is why people rarely smiled back then.

[kkkkandp]

Probably not a real smile, but it’s as close as you are going to get in the Old Judge set! [Image from Heritage Auction site]

[ValKehl]

If you had knocked in the winning run in the 12th inning of the 7th Game of the 1924 WS (making WaJo the winning pitcher in relief) for the Washington Senators first (and only) WS Championship in your first season in MLB, after just being acquired on August 8th from Sacramento (PCL) (for $50,000 & outfielder Wid Matthews) by Clark "The Old Fox" Griffith, you too would be smiling when your photo was being taken for your 1925 Exhibit card!

[Leon]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

I think some of the reason for the lack of smiles was the lower level of dental hygiene/care during that time frame...no need to reveal all the snaggled and broken choppers.

Brian (speaking of snaggling, I snaggled these two images, one from our Val and the other from the internet)

I was thinking of that Donovan when I saw the title of this thread.