John P. "Monk" Cline, Right Field, Sioux City Corn Huskers, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1889

Curator: This is a baseball card from the "Old Judge" series, a photographic print featuring John P. "Monk" Cline, a right fielder for the Sioux City Corn Huskers, dating back to 1889. It was produced by Goodwin & Company. Editor: What strikes me immediately is the stillness. The composition almost feels like a religious icon, despite its mundane subject. There's an upward gaze and an overall air of reverence, it’s intriguing. Curator: Indeed. And let’s not forget the purpose here. It's advertising. Each card was inserted into cigarette packs. That speaks volumes about the rise of consumer culture. Think of the logistics, the distribution networks, the sheer scale of production necessary to circulate these images of baseball players nationwide. Editor: True. And the baseball player is now a hero—a new mythology being built. His gaze directs our eye upwards toward unseen higher power. Is it pure skill? Fate? The ‘Old Judge’ cigarettes? Curator: It's a powerful statement on labor, actually. Baseball, even in 1889, represented work. The image documents Cline in his working clothes. Each card had to be printed, cut, and inserted. This was all intensive labor. Editor: I keep returning to this subtle impression of an older painting or etching. I find something quaint, anachronistic in this image that reminds us what these sorts of images meant to turn-of-the-century audiences. Curator: I'm intrigued by your response, particularly by considering what was left out from view of the lens, like the factory floors where the image was mass produced to become collectibles in the public’s imagination. Editor: Precisely. An object made sacred through consumption, circulated through a new system of belief—American celebrity. It's about creating visual artifacts around heroism, connecting it back to the consumer brand with something larger, almost a shared visual vernacular. Curator: It is all rather amazing when you really look at this fragile photo on paper. It ties together labor, recreation, marketing, and fandom. Editor: Ultimately it highlights both the promise and the potential pitfall of images when associated with iconography and the growth of modern industrial and material production.