Comparative Baseball Players

In connection with our mystifying baseball player, CK Melin has sent me a couple of photos for comparison.

The first is of her great-grandfather, Charlie Glover (standing), in a baseball uniform, taken in Chicago in 1897.


(Click on images to enlarge)
Images courtesy of CK Melin.

Like our "R. Hendrix," he wears a laced-up shirt with pointed collar.*


Things get even more interesting in the second photo: here is Ralph Melin of Hobart, in a photo taken circa 1908:



CK points out that the painted backdrop is the same as in the "R. Hendrix" photo, which suggests that both photos were taken in Hobart (as does the "H" on R. Hendrix's shirt). Possibly they date to around the same time as well, but that's only my guess.

Now we just have to find out if those painted backdrops were one-of-a-kind, or mass-manufactured. Anyone with time on their hands is invited to research that.

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*Schlesinger & Mayer was the name of a large Chicago retail firm.