Bob Allen, Shortstop, Pittsburgh, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1889

Editor: This is “Bob Allen, Shortstop, Pittsburgh,” from the Old Judge series, an albumen print dating back to 1889. It’s striking how this image, originally a cigarette card, portrays Allen with such a dignified pose. What strikes you most about its historical and cultural significance? Curator: Considering the context, this piece speaks volumes about the rise of celebrity culture and the commercialization of sports. Think about it – baseball cards weren't born out of pure artistic expression, but from advertising. This image, distributed with Old Judge Cigarettes, essentially uses Bob Allen’s image to sell a product. It’s a very early example of endorsements and how popular figures entered the public consciousness through mass-produced imagery. How do you think this affected Allen's perception and legacy at the time? Editor: It’s fascinating to consider. It seems like almost an accidental form of immortality. He was likely unaware that his image would be viewed over a century later in a museum. So, the imagery moves from being about the player and his team, to instead about the celebrity of players and how they can represent certain brands or certain images that would create that public awareness. Curator: Exactly. The fact that we are studying it in the Met, shows the complex layers of history involved: sport history, the history of photography, advertising, even labor history considering the cigarette industry at the time. Its place within an institution like this one today also reflects how perceptions and categories can shift, and popular imagery from baseball can come to be seen as ‘high art’. Editor: So it's a cultural artifact reflecting multiple layers of social and economic change in late 19th-century America, now presented to us as worthy of artistic appreciation. I hadn't considered how loaded a simple baseball card could be! Curator: Precisely! Looking at it that way reveals how the seemingly mundane can hold so much significance when we look at its cultural and institutional history.