[Original Team Portrait Photograph of an African-American Baseball Team]: Grace Presbyterian Base Ball Team Champions Presbyterian Brotherhood League Season 1911

[Chicago]: H.T. Webb, 32 S. Clark St, 1911. Unbound. Near Fine. Mammoth plate gelatin silver portrait photograph. Image size approximately 19" x 14½" on a 22" x 19" thick card mount. Hand captioned beneath the image: "Grace Presbyterian Base Ball Team Champions Presbyterian Brotherhood League Season 1911." Toning and small nicks on the edges of the mount only, lettering is rubbed but easily readable, the image is fine. Spectacular portrait of 15 African-American men, all but three in uniform, with trophy, mitts, and a catcher's mask. One of the three men in street clothing is on crutches. All members of an African-American amateur baseball team from Chicago (references to the photographer Webb appear in various Chicago sources; he also seems to have photographed some of the Chicago White Sox players). Grace Presbyterian was established in 1888 as a storefront African-American church that existed until around 1917. The Presbyterian Brotherhood was a men's club meant to promote "masculine Christianity." We have been unable to determine whether the Presbyterian Brotherhood League was segregated or not. Chicago had a vibrant African-American culture after the First Great Migration. While we have been unable to identify individual players, the professional black baseball teams of Rube Foster were thriving in this period, and further investigation is probably warranted. An unusually large and aesthetically satisfying image. Portraits of African-American baseball teams from this era, especially mammoth plate images, are rare.