Olympic Sports Collage 1888 M184

Bright Brothers 1888 Champions N184 Olympic Sports Collage:... more

by Bright Bros

Title

Olympic Sports Collage 1888 M184

Artist

Bright Bros

Medium

Photograph - Antique Tobacco Card

Description

Bright Brothers 1888 Champions N184 Olympic Sports Collage:
The modern Olympics didn’t start until the early 1900s, but had the Games been around in the 1880s, these athletes could have gone for the gold in boxing, running, wrestling, high jumping and cycling. The unique collage includes boxer John L. Sullivan, the most famous athlete of the era.

1888 Champions N184 -- Non-Baseball

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the 1888 tobacco card series “Champions of Games and Sports” (N184, W.S. Kimball & Co. cigarettes) is the number of competitions featured. Once you get past the four baseball players (pitcher, catcher, batter and fielder), things get unusual quickly.

Bright Bros. have pulled out a few notables, from activities such as boxing (including “lady boxing” and “boy boxing”), Greco-Roman wrestling, six-day roller skating, high jumping, long jumping, running, billiards, rifle shooting (Annie Oakley!), deep sea swimming, horse racing and, of course, cannon ball catching. Really.

We’ve also created unique collages from the set to highlight the boxers, the athletes from (what are now) Olympic sports and competitors of the more unusual pursuits. Enjoy!

Uploaded

December 29th, 2020