Sports, Recreation, and Outdoors

A cabinet card photo featuring a decorative mask that forms a tennis-themed border, with two crossed tennis rackets and three tennis balls at the bottom, netting along the bottom and sides, and leaves and vines at the top. This appears to be the same mask (although flipped horizontally) used in Photo_History's Woman with Tennis Racket Decorative Mask - Cabinet Card .

A sport photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. With eight rackets and four balls (stacked next to the racket lying in the lap of the guy at front center in the photo), this group seems ready to play tennis. But don't they look too dressed up to head out onto the tennis court, even by early twentieth-century standards? There's no identifying information on the back of this real photo postcard, but the dealer who sold it to me thought that it may have come from Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. If so, perhaps this was a group of students, along with their instructors or chaperones, at the Cumberland Valley State Normal School, which is now Shippensburg University .

Photo studio: John S. Fritz, 852 Penn Street, Reading, Pa. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to uncover any information regarding a "Hercules" baseball team in or around Reading, Pennsylvania, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

A photo of folded arms and/or crossed legs for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. "...Base-ball Club, Boswel....weg. [or neg.?] by Wm. Hicks." This is a damaged real photo postcard of a baseball club from Boswell , Somerset County, Pennsylvania, dating to the 1900s or 1910s. Although part of the handwritten caption is missing due to the torn-off corner, the baseball club name appears to have been the Regulars, judging by the shirt worn by the man standing on the left with his hands on his hips. Other players are standing with their arms folded, and some are sitting cross-legged on the ground. William Hicks was a 24-year-old resident of Boswell when he listed his occupation as photographer on a marriage license application dated November 25, 1907 (as viewed on the Ancestry web site). His wife-to-be was Catharine E. Henry, who was 18 years old and also lived in Boswell. I haven't been able to locate any additional information about William Hicks and his photographic work, but I'm guessing that he may have been the photographer for two other real photo postcards from the same town: Nicollette at Boswell, Pa. , and Atlantic Coal Company's Mine, Boswell, Pa.

A real photo postcard. Written on the basketball: "Seniors, '19."

A snow photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park . If the woman has just fallen down in the snow, why is she smiling? What happened to her coat? And why is the girl in the background smiling and just standing there on her skis? An amusingly contrived photo that makes me wonder why it was taken.

"Merry Christmas. Miles, Geal, and Rosalie Hudson."

"Washington Athletic Club, Seattle, has the honor to extend to Ens. W. J. McTalley the privileges of the club for the period ending Dec. 2, 1941, at the request of US Navy, Darwin Meisnest, manager. K523." The Washington Athletic Club 's 21-story building with its art deco construction opened in downtown Seattle in 1930, and the club celebrated its eighty-fifth anniversary in 2015.

One in a series of sports trading cards printed on the back of Wheaties cereal boxes in 1952. See also Ned Day, Famous Bowling Champion .

One in a series of baseball-themed advertising trade cards published in 1887 by Tobin, this card featured a caricature of Charlie Ferguson, who was a well-regarded pitcher for the Philadelphia Quakers team. Sadly, it turned out that 1887 was the final season that Ferguson played--he died from typhoid fever in April 1888. -------- "Philadelphia. 'Not Onto It.' (Ferguson.) Tobin N.Y." "A. W. Schrader, manufacturer of all kinds of mineral waters, also bottler of lager and porter. Private families supplied at short notice. 726 and 728 Adams Ave., Scranton, Pa. Telephone connection."

A Japanese baseball menko card. As Wikipedia explains, " Baseball menko are an early type of Japanese baseball card, originally designed for use in the children's game of menko , but now avidly collected by baseball fans and card collectors. ('Menko' is both the singular and the plural form.)" For more information on baseball menko, see John Gall's fascinating book, Sayonara Home Run!: The Art of the Japanese Baseball Card . For another example, see Flyers Menko Card .

A Japanese baseball menko card, which is a collectible sports trading card that was originally used in a children's card game . For additional illustrations of baseball menko, see John Gall's delightful book, Sayonara Home Run!: The Art of the Japanese Baseball Card . For another example, see Giants Menko Card .

"Tiny Town Bowling Alleys, Richmond, Virginia, 'The South's Most Modern Bowling Plant.'" Printed on the back of this linen postcard: "Tiny Town, America's most beautiful amusement centre, Richmond, Va., consisting of 27 H. Wagner and Adler High Speed, High Score all-maple alleys, acoustically treated, with concealed lighting. Second floor, Tantilla Garden, the South's most beautiful ballroom."

A sample cigar label printed by the Moehle Lithographic Company.

"Good for one chair at Y.M.C.A. Field Sports, West End Park, Monday, July 4, 1892. 2:30 p.m. Price, 10 cts. Pluck Art Print."

"Love crown your way."

"Joe DiMaggio's Restaurant, Fishermen's Wharf, San Francisco, California. Famous thruout the world. Vincent DiMaggio. Dominic DiMaggio. Telephone: Ordway 2266 - 205-11 Jefferson St. Cocktails." Printed on the back of this linen postcard: "Joe DiMaggio's Restaurant. Your visit to San Francisco would not be complete without dining and dancing at Joe DiMaggio's restaurant, overlooking the world-famous Fishermen's Wharf, with its picturesque Italian fishermen and their gaily painted fishing craft in full view." Handwritten note on the back: "1940."

Printed on the back of this linen postcard: "The American Miniature Golf Course. Located 11 miles east of Lancaster, Pa., in the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch section. 24 long, tricky holes. Open every day and night. Hot and cold refreshments, fountain service. Phone 63718. Leola, Pa."