Jack Glasscock, Shortstop, Indianapolis, from the Goodwin Champion series for Old Judge and Gypsy Queen Cigarettes 1888

Editor: This is “Jack Glasscock, Shortstop, Indianapolis,” a baseball card from 1888 created by Goodwin & Company, as part of the Old Judge and Gypsy Queen Cigarettes series. I’m really struck by how… serious he looks. It’s such a contrast to modern sports photography. I mean, what’s your take on it? Curator: Well, doesn't it whisper of a different era? I find myself gazing not just at Glasscock, poised and ready, but at a portal to late 19th-century America, captured on something intended as fleeting ephemera. It’s the tension between that fleetingness and the permanence of art that gets me. Do you see that, too, that conversation across time? And tell me, what’s the first detail your eye snags? Editor: Probably the mustache. It’s pretty epic! But also, those shoes. They look more like dancing shoes than baseball cleats. Curator: Ah, the details! And how wonderfully they misbehave. They resist neat categorization. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? About how appearances can deceive. This small print becomes more than a sportsman's likeness – it's a mini theater piece where identities are built with props. Think how far baseball has come, in its aesthetic and how it is presented! Editor: So, it's more than just a portrait of a baseball player. Curator: Oh, my dear, portraits rarely are "just" portraits. They are little echoes of worlds and ways of seeing, inviting us into someone else's experience of reality! It is fascinating! Editor: I never thought I could be so intrigued by a baseball card. I really learned a lot! Thanks! Curator: The pleasure was all mine. It's pieces like this that teach me new tricks and new ways to open up our perception!