2003 Pictorial Committee Newsletter - December
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| By Bill Hickman |
SABR PICTORIAL HISTORY COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER
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Bill Hickman, Chair, bdhickmn@aol.com
Cary Smith, Vice Chair, zinnbeck@aol.com
December 2003
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PLAYER IMAGE INDEX MISSING FEWER THAN 1,100
Submissions of photo references for missing players are continuing to come into the Committee. We have now reached the point where approximately 1,050 major leaguers are missing from the Player Image Index. The number of men who have appeared in major league games is approximately 16,000. The difference between these two numbers will give you a round estimate of the numbers of individual major leaguers now catalogued into the Player Image Index.
PARTICIPATION IN THE PLAYER IMAGE INDEX PROJECT STILL GROWING
In addition to those individuals mentioned in previous Committee Newsletters, the following individuals have contributed the finding of at least one photo image which has been catalogued into the Player Image Index: Duane Behm, Bill Carle, Bruce Erricson, Cappy Gagnon, Jim Kreuz, John Ruoff, and Howard Singer. Nearly 50 people have now been involved in developing the Player Image Index.
A special round of thanks goes to Marc Okkonen, Richard Ulrich, Lefty Blasco, and Bob Richardson, who have submitted photos multiple times since the last newsletter was issued.
Thanks also to Cary Smith, who has been investing a great deal of time in making sure that the Player Image Index database is as thorough and accurate as possible. Cary has been laboriously going through the database and affixing Lahman ID’s to each player entry, so that our database can be easily linked to other player databases under development within SABR. At last report, Cary had been through half of the approximately 20,000 records in the Player Image Index.
In mentioning contributors to this project, I try to keep track of everyone who has submitted at least one photo. If you have been inadvertantly omitted from mention in this Newsletter, please let me know, since it is likely a mistake on my part.
GETTING THE PLAYER IMAGE INDEX ONTO THE SABR WEBSITE
We are striving to assure that each Player Image Index record has a Lahman ID attached before we bring it up onto the SABR website. I’m hoping that we are going to accomplish that work in 2004.
GETTING COMMITTEE INFORMATION FROM SABR WEBSITE
SABR has implemented a Content Management System which enables its research
committees to make more extensive use of the SABR website for providing information about their work. Our Committee has started putting information onto the website. To reach that information, here are the steps you would take.
Go to the SABR website (www.sabr.org). Click on “Research” in the box at the left. This brings you to a list of committees. Click on “Pictorial History.” This brings you to our home page. Click on any of the links just above my byline to get to additional information.
TOM SHIEBER’S WEBSITE
In the previous newsletter, I attempted to give you the correct address for Tom’s 19th Century Pictures website, but there was a typo in some of the newsletters which were issued. The correct website address is: http://www.bluecurl.com/ncbbp/index.htm
OTHER PICTORIAL WEBSITES
In addition to pictorial websites mentioned in previous newsletters, here are a few additional ones which you might want to know about.
1. The Bain Collection within the Library of Congress website. The collection seems to focus on old ballparks, like Ebbetts Field. The URL is http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query
2. Diamond Images. The URL is http://www.diamondimages.net/products.htm
3. Legends in Time (The Don Wingfield Collection). The URL is
http://www.legendsintime.com/
4. Temple University. The baseball photos are of recent vintage. A good place to look for Phillies star players, for example. The URL is http://diamond.temple.edu:81/search/
If you have some favorite websites for finding baseball photos, please share them with us. Just send me an email and I’ll include in a future newsletter.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS ASSOCIATED WITH BASEBALL IMAGES
With the assistance of Mark Rucker, the Committee has been able to put together the following glossary:
AMBROTYPE - A photo on glass, invented in 1851, but quickly supplanted by the much cheaper tintype. There are fewer than ten baseball images in this format.
BASEBALL CARD - A paper item listed in Krause’s STANDARD CATALOG OF
BASEBALL CARDS.
CABINET PHOTO - A photo of a size conducive to display on a cabinet or in a small room. In the baseball sense, it often pertains to the 5” x 7.5” photos issued by the Sporting Life Publishing Company.
CARTE-DE-VISITE - Means “Visiting Card.” It was invented in 1854 in Paris by Disderi. It consists of a thin photo glued onto a card.
COLLAGE - An assembly of player images into a single unit, but without retaining uniform shaped areas for each image. Usually the players are all presented from one team.
COMPOSITE - An assembly of individual, uniform-shaped player images into to single unit. Usually the players are all presented from one team.
CYANOTYPE - This process was used by Victorian photographers as a means of getting a quick, initial print or “blueprint” of their work, before returning to their studios to make a final print.
DAGUERREOTYPE - Photo made by vaporizing mercury on a prepared cooper plate, giving the appearance of a mirror when completed. Invented in 1839, there are only a few baseball images in this format.
DRAWING - A presentation of an image of a player using pen and ink.
EXHIBIT CARD - A postcard -like photo issued by the Exhibit Supply Company of Chicago and sold in “penny arcade” vending machines.
FLEXICHROME - A hand-colorized black and white photo, sometimes found on baseball cards.
HALFTONE - The process used by printers after 1889 to allow printing without the difficulties of lithographic stones. The photo dot system in these images can be either fine or coarse. Almost all reproduced photos since 1889 are in this format.
ROTOGRAPH - A reproduction process for photography which became popular during the 1910’s. The resulting photo was usually colored in brown or green tones. The New York Times mid-week pictorial magazine employed rotographs exclusively. The clarity of images was improved over that of halftones, because the dot system was replaced by a continuous tone effect.
STEREO VIEW - A double-image photograph that attemtps to reproduce three
dimensions when seen in a stereo viewer. Two photos are taken simultaneously by a camera, and these images are glued onto a card. This was popular from the late 1850’s to the 1900’s.
TEAM PHOTO - A photo taken when players on a team had been posed while sitting or standing in a large group.
TINTYPE - A photo on a tin plate. The process was invented in the mid-1850’s. It was most popular from the 1860’s to the 1880’s, but the tintype continued to be produced into the 20th Century.
WOODCUT - A print from an image carved on a wooden block.
OPPORTUNITIES TO PARTICIPATE IN COMMITTEE PROJECTS
Now that the number of players missing from the Player Image Index is down to about 1,050, we have pretty much tapped the existing collections of player photos. To make further progress, we will need to start going through microfilm of newspapers in local areas to see if we can find some of these missing players. Please consider joining in on this search by sending me an email requesting a copy of the Missing Players List, or part of the List. It’s possible to send you a subset of missing players with a focus you choose, such as what state or foreign country they came from, what major league team they played for, or what major league era they played in.
Two potential projects remain on hold waiting for someone who might want to step up to to lead them. They are a Manager Image Index (to parallel the Player Image Index) and a Ballparks Image Index. Just let me know if you are interested.
That’s all for this newsletter. May you all have pleasant holidays and a happy new year.
Bill Hickman
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