A baseball episode – Vintage Print
(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
A window into the past: A baseball episode, preserved in this historic drawing. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.
The framed print arrives ready to hang; the unframed option suits custom framing. It makes a striking addition to a living room, study or office, and a thoughtful gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past has been bringing history to the wall since 2001, for tens of thousands of customers worldwide.
A baseball episode
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The caption "Dat's why!", written in dialect, suggests the drawing turns on a joke about a street game, with children, adults and a dog caught up in the action. Published in *Harper's Weekly* in 1881, it reflects how baseball had spread from organized clubs into city streets by the 1880s, where poorer boys often played with whatever equipment they could find. Magazine artists like this one usually worked in pen and ink, and the lines were then transferred to wood blocks for engraving before printing. Look closely at the figures' clothing and posture for a sense of how the period's illustrators portrayed working-class urban life.
| Medium | 1 drawing : pen and ink over graphite underdrawing ; sheet 22.6 x 28.2 cm. |
|---|---|
| Genre | dat's why!" Published in: Harper's weekly |
| Notes | [1881] |
| Subjects | Baseball--1880-1890. Children--1880-1890. Adults--1880-1890. Dogs--1880-1890. Poor persons--1880-1890. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 5,744 × 4,533 px · prints to 19 × 15 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-HPA-226088 |
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