Engle, New York, American League, from the White Border series (T206) for the American Tobacco Company 1909 - 1911

This baseball card featuring Engle of the New York American League was created by the American Tobacco Company as part of its T206 series. The composition strikes an unusual balance. The subject, Engle, is cropped, focusing on his stance and grip on the bat. The card's structure divides the space into distinct color blocks: the light blue sky, the green field, and the white border. Visually, the card employs a limited palette and simplified forms, reducing the baseball player to an arrangement of shapes and colors. This abstraction serves a dual purpose: it identifies Engle as a player but also transforms him into a symbol. This semiotic encoding elevates the card from a mere portrait to a signifier of early 20th-century American culture. Note how the flat rendering and lack of depth create a sense of surface. This challenges traditional notions of representation and underscores the card's status as a mass-produced object. This baseball card encapsulates a moment in time and speaks to broader themes of identity, representation, and the commodification of culture.