T210 Casey Stengel Photograph

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Posted By: Bill Stone

Casey Stengel is pictured in the T210 series 6 baseball card in a Maysville uniform. Maysville didn't start play in the Blue Grass league until August 25,1910 and Casey only played in a total of 69 games from 7/18/1910-to 9/18/1910 which means the photograph must have been taken between August 25 and September 18,1910. Does anyone know who took these and other tobacco card photographs? , who selected the players to be represented from each team ?, were they generally taken by the team photographer then submitted to a publisher--I love the cards and collecting them but I am also an enquiring mind and want to know about how the process worked? Any sources for answers would be appreciated. Thanks

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Posted By: davidcycleback

For old baseball cards, the publisher could get images from a variety of sources. They could buy existing photos from a news or photo service (AP, United Press, studio) or independant photographer, or they could hire a photographer. More often than not they bought existing photos from an third party, rather than hiring their own photographers. An example of the latter is the Old Judges, where Goodwin hired local studios to photograph players for the cards.

For a large set, the original photos often came from a variety of sources-- The Yankees players from the team photographer, the Cardinals from a St Louis newspaper photographer, the Cubs from United Press.

I have a lot of the original photos used to make 1930s-50s Exhibit Supply Co. boxing and wrestling cards, and the stamps on the photo backs show that photos came from different sources. This includes a Los Angeles private studio, International News Photos, Ring Magazine and one from The Chicago Tribune. At least for these cards, Exhibit did not have its own in house photographer. Most likely, the Exhibit official dialed up Ring magazine and said "Can you get me photos of Cassius Clay and other boxers?"

Famous tobaccco card photographers include Joseph Hall (Old Judge), John Wood (Old Judge), Benjamine J. Falk (Newsboy cabinets), Carl Horner (T206 including Honus Wagner) and Charles Conlon (T202).

Many famous photographers were imployees for a company, like a magazine or news service, and did not have control of how their images were sold or used. If a card company wanted wanted a Charles Conlon photo, the company might have to The Sporting News (Conlon's employer) and not Conlon. So the funny thing is it is possible that a photographer who worked for a big newspaper or phot service was not aware that his photo of Hal Chase or Hank Greenberg was used to make a baseball card.