1896 Detroit (Detroits, Tigers)
Left: This rendering is based on visual documentation for uniform style and written documentation for color. Minor details may be undocumented or difficult to determine. An educated guess is made to complete the rendering.
Rendering accuracy:Year: documented Team: documented
Right: This rendering is based on written documentation for uniform style and color. No visual documentation is known and an artist’s conceptualization is used to create the rendering.
Rendering accuracy:Year: documented Team: documented
See below — this may be the best team photo — EVER.
Team photos are baseball treasures, especially from the 19th century. The faces of the players, some hopeful, some haggard, tell many stories. The heavy flannel uniforms, the old-school equipment, the soft natural lighting — these all make for enchanting images.
Even so, it was up to the photographer to compose the scene, set the background and instruct his subjects. It’s clear that photographer Clarence M. Hayes of Detroit was a master at all of this.
The photo below of the 1896 Detroit team of the Western League remains one of the more carefully crafted images you’ll ever find. This little known photo has recently come up for auction. Remarkably, it may also be the first photograph ever taken of the Detroit “D.”
Let’s examine this image closer.
Photo A
We’ll start by analyzing the players in the photo to confirm when the image was taken. Photo A included Detroit player-manager George Stallings, standing in center back, and owner George Van Derbeck, sitting at left in street clothes. The year in which this photo was taken can be confirmed by the appearance of players McCauley and Gillen in combination with six other players in the photo: Egan, Trost, Whistler, Burnett, Knoll and Hines. These men only played together for Detroit in 1896. It was the last year on the roster for McCauley and Gillen and the first year for the other men.
Further study can determine that photo A was taken at the end of the 1896 season, between the dates of July 21, 1896, and September 12, 1896. The July date can be established by player Hines, who “made his first appearance in a Detroit uniform” on July 21, 1896, and who became the regular shortstop for the remainder of the season. The September date can be determined by the fact that a drawing based on this photo was published in a newspaper on September 13.
The image scan comes from Robert Edward Auctions. Researcher Carson Lorey discovered the image up for sale at REA last November, describing it as a “fascinating and peculiar image.” Indeed. The auction house noted that the “cabinet image” was “extremely impressive,” as well as “oversized,” measuring 18.75 x 11.5 inches. On the photo mount was stamped “Photo-Gravure – C. M. Hayes & Co. – Artist’s Proof.” Yep, that’s our man, Clarence M. Hayes.
Photo B
Dated September 13, 1896. This drawing was based on photo A and was published in a newspaper on this date. Note that the artist added some elements in the foreground. Fortunately, the photo caption included player identities.
Top row, from left: R Gayle (95-97), J Fifield (95, 96, 00), A Twineham (95, 96, 98), T Thomas (Det 96-99, Peo WA 96), G Stallings (plyr/mgr 96, 98-01), A McCauley (Det 95, 96, Jac ISL 96), S Gillen (95, 96), J Knoll (96, 97) and H Hines (96-98). Front: R Egan (96, 97), M Trost (96, 97), (G Van Derbeck pres 94-00), L Whistler (96, 97), H Burnett (96, 97), S Dungan (94-99) and P Nicholson (95-97). Player IDs and image from the Detroit Free Press, September 13, 1896. Years players with team from baseball-reference.com. Hines first appearance date from the Detroit Free Press, July 22, 1896. Image scan from Carson Lorey. Original illustration by V. Floyd Campbell.
Why is this one of the best team photos ever?
Let’s start with the pose of the players. Note how the men were grouped and seemingly having private conversations. In fact, no one was looking at the camera. If you know your art history you know that this composition may have been inspired by the sacra conversazione, or sacred conversation, found in the art of the Italian Renaissance. Few photographers, if any, attempted this arrangement when portraying a baseball team.
Top, detail view of photo A. Bottom, detail view of The School of Athens by Raphael, circa 1510. The sacred conversation was a device found in 15th- and 16th-century Italian Renaissance paintings. Like the detail example above, large frescos from the period had plenty of extra figures added in, all flanking the main subject in the center. These extra people had to do something, so they were shown in sidebar. Most likely, their conversations were about the Holiness of the Christ child. In our Detroit photo, I would guess the talk was more about the holiness of the hit-and-run.
The photographer, Clarence M. Hayes (1863-1927), was clearly a student of the arts. Born and educated in Ohio, Hayes came to Detroit to work in the studio of Frank N. Tomlinson. Tomlinson is known today in baseball circles for his studio images of the Detroit National League team, 1886-1887. After a stint in St. Paul, Hayes returned to Detroit around 1893 to establish his own studio, C. M. Hayes & Company, located at 246 Woodward Avenue.
Some background on the background.
In addition to arranging the players, Hayes also excelled at composing the background elements of photo A. Note the wonderful vignettes on the walls– another remarkable feature of this image. Once again, I believe the photographer was borrowing from fine art – in this case, 17th-century Dutch painting.
Top, another detail view of photo A. Bottom, detail view of Beware of Luxury by Jan Steen, 1663. Steen and other Dutch painters sought to depict real people, real interiors and everyday working life – genre painting. At first, the realistic elements in these backgrounds seemed innocuous, but they were actually symbols of good and evil, depending on the scene. The vignettes Hayes created were nothing but good, showing the tools of the baseball trade – caps, gloves, a catcher’s mask, a chest protector, bat bags, baseballs, all beautifully composed and lighted. Again, not many in the studio attempted to create this kind of imagery.
Left, detail of the photographer’s stamp from photo A. Center and right, two portraits of Clarence M. Hayes. Image at left from Robert Edward Auctions. Image at center from historiccamera.com. Image at right from the Detroit Free Press, September 24, 1927.
I believe that Hayes found inspiration in well-known periods of fine art, and in doing so sought to elevate the trade of photography — something he seemed to champion throughout his lifetime. Paging though the Detroit newspaper archives reveals that Hayes was also a photographic inventor, a technical innovator and one of the earliest pioneers in color imagery. In 1898, Hayes exhibited prints in Detroit made with a “new color photographic process.”
Hayes was a noted lecturer and served as president of the Professional Photographers Association of America. He was once commissioned by the Detroit Museum of Art to photograph 400 of Detroit’s most illustrious residents for display at the museum. He won international photography awards and his portfolio reportedly included portraits of Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and, of course, Ty Cobb. Hayes died in Detroit on September 23, 1927, a date most online references don’t seem to have.
The first D-Day.
The Tigers first wore their beloved D on opening day, April 28, 1896, at Detroit’s newly built Bennett Park, located at Michigan and Trumbull Avenues. They took the field wearing “new gray uniforms with maroon trimmings.” An illustration from the opening ceremonies clearly showed the letter on the right breast.
Photo C
Published April 29, 1896. Sketch of former Detroit player Charley Bennett catching a ceremonial first pitch before the Detroit home opener at Bennett Park on April 28, 1896. Detroit players were depicted wearing a large “D” on their right breast and a pillbox cap with two horizontal bands. Published sketch from the Detroit Free Press, April 29, 1896. Research and image scan from toddradom.com, retrieved August 3, 2019.
Likely the first-ever D to be captured in camera.
Detail view of photo A. Unwittingly, our man Hayes may also have been the first to ever photograph the Detroit “D,” an element still found today on the Tigers’ chest. Before 1896, Detroit teams wore the city name across the front of the shirt, as was the style of the day. However when new uniforms were ordered by team president George Van Derbeck in late February 1896, it was reported that “instead of the word Detroit on the shirt front there will be a German letter ‘D’ on one side.” Detroit experimented with this letter fifteen years earlier in 1881, thanks to Dasher Troy, and it most recently (and poorly) redesigned the letter in 2018.
But, here’s the dirt on this uniform.
Toward the end of the 1896 season, the period in which photo A was taken, the “new gray uniforms” from opening day had become very soiled. A game report from late July noted that the suits “were ragged, while others were dirty or stained.” In a game on August 17 the team looked “shabby and slovenly” and the uniforms by this time were anything but uniform. One player’s outfit “was a sight,” while another player “had on as many colors as a country girl at a circus.” The catcher that day wore brown stockings borrowed from the opposing team.
Two days later, the Detroit Free Press put out this offer: “If [Detroit first baseman Lew] Whistler will send his uniform to the Free Press it will be sent to a laundry and washed, returned to him, and the bill paid by the paper.”
Another detail view of photo A. This detail view shows the relatively clean uniforms worn by the players. Note that there were no visible stains, no soiled spots, no missing buttons or ripped pockets, and all the stockings match. So, was this the same uniform that was ragged and stained in July and August? Could this possibly be the same rig they wore on opening day?
My instincts tell me no.
I believe that when the team returned to Detroit for their final home games beginning on September 9, the team was presented with new uniforms, likely very similar to that worn on opening day.
Two reasons for this:
–after a slow start, the Tigers were neck and neck in September with Indianapolis for second place. Finishing second meant that they could go on to play for the Free Press Cup, the Western League’s post-season trophy, and subsequently bring in more gate receipts. (Alas, Detroit eventually finished third)
–by September, the team had captured the imagination of the city. According to the Free Press on September 10, the Tigers were “the hottest thing around town, outside of the smelting furnaces.” I’d say that would be the perfect time to start selling team photos.
It seems likely that Van Derbeck splurged to clean up his team’s appearance around September 9, and in doing so also requested that the men go in front of the photographer’s lens a few days later. (Note that Van Derbeck included himself in the image). Unfortunately, no report has been found to date to support this theory or to determine when exactly this image was made. Want to dig on this? So far, all we have is a theory — and one beautiful photograph.
Info on Hayes color photography from the Detroit Free Press, November 15, 1898. Other info on Hayes’ life from historiccamera.com. Hayes death date from the Detroit Free Press, September 24, 1927. Info on Roosevelt and Taft portraits from the Detroit Evening Times, May 4, 1910. Info on Cobb portrait from Robert Edward Auctions. Scan of painting by Raphael (1483-1520) from wikipedia.com. Scan of painting by Jan Steen (1626-1679) from Google Arts & Culture. Info on uniforms being first ordered from the Detroit Free Press, February 29, 1896. Info on opening day uniform from the Detroit Free Press, April 29, 1896. Info on ragged uniforms from the Detroit Free Press, July 29, 1896 and August 18, 1896. Info on laundry offer from the Detroit Free Press, August 20, 1896. Thanks to Carson Lorey and Ed Morton for research help. Thanks to Todd Radom and Peter Reitan for posting Tiger-related content online in recent years. For more on the Tiger nickname origination story, see the 1895 Detroit page here.
Written documentation on these uniforms:
February 1896: “In regard to uniforms, [manager] Stallings prefers solid blue for traveling, and white with blue or black trimmings for the home games. He suggests the advisability of taking the University of Michigan colors for home games, and thinks it would be taking [i.e., captivating] with the college men.” From the Detroit Free Press, February 9, 1896. Research from Ed Morton.
February 1896: “Mr. Van Derbock [club owner George Van Derbeck] will use the old blue uniforms [from 1895] for games abroad and will have white uniforms with black trimmings for the home games. Instead of the word Detroit on the shirt front there will be a German letter ‘D’ on one side. The white caps will have two black bands around them.” From the Detroit Free Press, February 29, 1896. Research from Todd Radom, retrieved from toddradom.com, August 3, 2019. Radom added that this report was the “first known reference to the Detroit Tigers’ uniform D.”
March 1896: “Detroit will have one of the prettiest uniforms on the ball field this season. They will be of blue gray flannel with maroon trimmings, stockings and belt, and Boston braided cap. The old English letter D will be sewed on the left shirt front. The uniform on the foreign trips will be dark blue with red trimmings, similar to that worn in the home series last year.” From the Detroit Free Press, March 13, 1896. Research from Ed Morton. This same report appeared in the Louisville Courier-Journal, March 23, 1896. Courier-Journal research from Peter Reitan. These reports suggested the team had switched from an earlier plan to wear a white uniform with black trimmings in 1896. Also, this description does not exactly match the sketch published in the Detroit Free Press on April 29, 1896, see photo A. That sketch showed a letter on the right breast, not on the left breast, and a pillbox cap, not a Boston cap which featured a rounded crown.
March 1896: “The home uniform of the Tigers this year will probably be white with black trimmings, and the trip uniform dark blue, with red or black trimmings.” From The Sporting Life, March 28, 1896. This report used the team nickname of “Tigers.” For more information on the origin of the Tigers nickname, see the 1895 Detroit page.
April 1896: “The Toronto club’s uniforms this season will be gray with maroon trimmings, the same as Detroit.” From the Detroit Free Press, April 14, 1896. Research from Ed Morton. This report further suggested the team had switched from an earlier plan to wear a white uniform with black trimmings in 1896.
April 17, 1896, Detroit v. Toledo at Bennett Park, Detroit, exhibition game: “The Detroits went out quickly in the first, the feature of which was the applause for Dungan who looked as big as a house with his white shirt, black pants and white stockings.” From the Detroit Free Press, April 17, 1896. Research from Ed Morton.
April 28, 1896, Detroit v. Columbus at Bennett Park, Detroit, opening day: “In a quarter of an hour the Detroits were called [to the field] and a cheer went up. […] The new gray uniforms with maroon trimmings looked very neat.” From the Detroit Free Press, April 29, 1896. Research from Ed Morton. This eye-witness report confirmed the team wore gray uniforms with maroon trimmings in 1896, not white with black trimmings.
July 1896: “Just thirteen men marched out from the west/Out from the west, when the time was nigh/Each shouldered his bat and pulled down his hat/And looked at the ‘D’ upon his breast.” A portion of a poem published by the Detroit Free Press, July 26, 1896.
July 28, 1896, Detroit v. Milwaukee, at Detroit: “The contrast between the Milwaukee and Detroit uniforms is striking and shows what a cheaply clad gang the Tigers are. The visitors were as neat as a pin, while Detroits wore parts of two or three uniforms and some of them were ragged, while others were dirty or stained.” From the Detroit Free Press, July 29, 1896. Research from Ed Morton.
July 31, 1896, Detroit v. Kansas City, at Detroit: “The Detroits surprised their admirers by appearing on the field yesterday all dressed the same. [Detroit pitcher Jack] Fifield had on a black cap, but that was the only change, and the uniforms actually looked as though they had been washed. They needed cleaning badly enough.” From the Detroit Free Press, August 1, 1896.
August 17, 1896, Detroit v. Indianapolis, at Detroit, Bennett Park: “The Detroit players’ uniforms looked shabby and slovenly in contrast with the natty appearance of the Indians. […] When the Free Press called attention to the soiled collection of uniforms worn by the Detroit players some weeks ago there was no intention to convey the idea that one washing would suffice for the rest of the season. The faded gray was introduced to a wash board at the time, but since then it appears as though all acquaintance between the uniforms and water had been severed. [Lew] Whistler’s makeup was a sight yesterday. [Robert] Gayle had on as many colors as a country girl at a circus and [Art] Twineham wore brown stockings. Indianapolis also had on brown stockings, so it is fair to suppose ‘Old Hoss’ borrowed a pair for the occasion. Van [i.e., Detroit owner George Van Derbeck] might watch the bargain counters and fit the boys out.” From the Detroit Free Press, August 18, 1896.
August 19, 1896, Detroit v. Indianapolis, at Detroit: “If [Lew] Whistler will send his uniform to the Free Press it will be sent to a laundry and washed, returned to him, and the bill paid by the paper.” From the Detroit Free Press, August 20, 1896.
September 1896: “Detroit will wear new uniforms of white with black trimmings abroad next year [1897].” From the Detroit Free Press, September 26, 1896.
1896, referenced in March 1897: “The gray of last year [1896], the blue of the year before [1895] and some of the cream and black of the first year [1894] will serve for out-of-town games [in 1897], in spite of the fact that the team will have a sort of misfit appearance.” From the Detroit Free Press, March 3, 1897. Research from Ed Morton.
Team genealogy: Detroit 1894-
Detroit joined the Western League (WL) in 1894 when the league reformed. The reorganized WL operated between 1894 and 1899 and reformed again as the American League (AL) for the 1900 season. Detroit played in the WL between 1894 and 1899 and has played in the American League from 1900 to the present day. Information from wikipedia.com.
Rendering posted: January 27, 2024
Diggers on this uniform: Ed Morton, Peter Reitan, Todd Radom,