1890-1891 YOUNG LADIES BASEBALL CLUB NO. 1 CABINET PHOTO, STRIPED UNIFORMS

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1890-1891 YOUNG LADIES BASEBALL CLUB NO. 1 CABINET PHOTO, STRIPED UNIFORMS:
$5000.00

Historically significant 1890-1891 Young Ladies Baseball Club No. 1 cabinet photo. This wonderful early women's baseball team photo shows nine players in marvelous poses. They are all wearing dramatic striped uniforms with striped hats, & striped belts. The top edge of the matt shows the title of the team: "Young Ladies Base Ball Team No. 1". The right edge of the matt shows the wording: "Seasons Of 1890-1891 ". The bottom edge of the matt shows the names of the nine players:"Effie Earl S.S., Edith Mavues 3B. (not sure of spelling of last name), Alice Lee L.F., Rose Mitchell R.F., Angie Parker 2B., May Howard Cap and P., Annie Grant C.F., Kittie Grant 1B., Nellie Williams C."
The left border of the matt shows the name: "W. S. Franklin, Manager". Franklin, the manager, is not shown in the photo.An example of this photo is shown in the 1965 hardcover publication "The Fifty Great Pioneers Of American Industry" in the chapter dedicated to the baseball pioneer Harry Wright. The matt measures 6 1/2 inches by 4 1/4 inches.This was an unusual women's team because they playedprimarilyagainst men's teams. This talented women's team usually won the games played with most of the teams(whether men or women)which they played against. This team had much success & was known as an all women's team. Interestingly, however, from research that was done a while ago on this team, there is a possibility that two or three of the players shown in the photo may have actually been men concealing their identity as men & dressed as women. To our knowledge, this has never been proven for certain one way or another. In any event, this certainly adds an additional potentially fascinating aspect to this already rare & historically significant baseball photo.Another interesting fact about this team is that the name provided as the team’s manager, W. S. Franklin, is one of the aliases used by Sylvester F. Wilson who had a lengthy history of putting together teams of women baseball players. Wilson used a number of aliases such as H. H. Freeman, Harry Richmond, W. S. Franklin, and Frank W. Hartright as he was frequently trying to avoid the law. An excellent article about women’s baseball and Sylvester F. Wilson, “Women’s Baseball in Nineteenth Century New York and the Man Who Set Back Women’s Professional Baseball for Decades” by Debra A. Shattuck, can be found online on the site of the Society for American Baseball Research.The mount has some light soiling & brown toning from age. There is a small bump above a tiny nick at the bottom front center of the border of the matt. There is a tiny 1/8" tear on the back at this point on the border of the matt which only shows on the back. Also, the back of the mount has a minor surface wrinkle 1 3/8" long which does not affect the front of the image. There is a small surface scuff to paper on back at top left corner and the back has some stains. All of the printed red text on the front borders of the matt is faded from age. But, all of the text is readable.A rare & important photo of great historic significance in women's baseball as well as overall baseball history.The inventory number for this listing is 10199.Shipping by U.S. Mail is free and available only to addresses within the United States.