Edward James "Big Ed" Delahanty, 2nd Base, Philadelphia, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1889

Curator: This photograph captures Edward James "Big Ed" Delahanty, a second baseman for Philadelphia, taken around 1889 by Goodwin & Company as part of the Old Judge Cigarettes series. It resides here with us at The Met. Editor: It’s striking, the sepia tone gives such a weight to the image, making him look so stoic and posed despite ostensibly being an athlete. Curator: The Old Judge series marked an important intersection between early commercial culture and celebrity, using baseball players' likenesses to sell cigarettes. The mass production and distribution transformed these athletes into recognizable figures, blurring the lines between sport and spectacle. Editor: Absolutely. Think of the process, though—the printing press churning out these images, pasted on small cards within cigarette packs, circulated across cities and states, exchanged and consumed. Consider the wood pulp used for the cards themselves; even the ink becomes culturally charged! Curator: Precisely, this simple card, made for marketing tobacco, tells so much more about cultural and sporting trends. It signifies an evolution in the way we celebrate and market individuals within a specific time. The accessibility of this image reflects societal interests and celebrity endorsement in a bygone era. Editor: Exactly! And who are the workers in those factories? It’s often immigrant labor at the heart of production—exploited for materials like these to flourish. These are baseball stars now inextricably tied to manufacturing and social structure. Even Delahanty’s baseball bat, how was that crafted and consumed at this time? Curator: An excellent point, it brings an important socio-political dynamic into understanding our artwork, shedding a light not just on Delahanty as the iconic figure but the industry it propelled into being. These weren't seen as 'high art' objects. Editor: Which makes them even more intriguing! It prompts one to wonder how many were created in this series, and the long term implications on materiality and consumption and its entanglement with class! It gives the whole composition a second reading that simply focusing on sport elides. Curator: This opens new avenues of interpretations regarding the politics of representation and the socioeconomic dynamics intertwined within this single image. Editor: It does; hopefully this can provoke similar thought when someone else views and understands our piece.