1871 Boston (Bostons, Red Stockings)
This rendering is based on visual documentation for uniform style and written documentation for color. Some details may be undocumented or difficult to determine and an educated guess is made to complete the rendering.
Rendering accuracy:Year: documented Team: documented
Visual documentation on this uniform:
Photo A
Dated 1871. Collage of player portraits at left, detail view at right. Photo date based on appearance of players Cone and Jackson. These men only played from Boston in 1871. This collage may have been made between mid-July 1871 and October 1871 as Boston player G Wright (NA 71-75, NL 76-78, 80, 81) was not included. Wright was injured in a collision with teammate Cone on June 17, 1871 in a game against Mutual, New York. Wright missed the remainder of the season and was replaced on the roster by Jackson. For their portraits, the Boston players were photographed in uniform, wearing a white shirt with the city name arched across the chest. The detail view of the Jackson portrait shows that the city name had irregular letter forms, suggesting the word was hand-painted onto the shirt.
Players, clockwise from top: R Barnes (71-75), D Birdsall (71-73), F Cone (71), C Gould (71-75), H Wright (NA 71-75, NL 76-81), C McVey (71,72,74,75), H Schafer (NA 71-75, NL 76-78), and S Jackson (71). Center: A Spalding (71-75). Years with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012). Game date with Mutual from retrosheet.org. The portrait of H Wright was made by James W. Black, Boston, and it was probable that all of these portraits were made by Black.
Photo B
Dated 1871. Photo date confirmed by appearance of players Cone, Jackson and Barrows. These men only played for Boston in 1871. Note that players G Wright and Barrows were included in this collage but were not shown in photo A. The majority of portraits in this collage matched those shown in photo A. The exceptions were the portraits of Cone and Gould. Each had a different style to their hair suggesting their portraits were made at a different time, possibly in 1870.
Players, clockwise from top: A Spalding (71-75), D Birdsall (71-73), C Gould (71-75), S Jackson (71), F Barrows (71), C McVey (71,72,74,75), R Barnes (71-75), H Schafer (NA 71-75, NL 76-78), G Wright (NA 71-75, NL 76-78, 80, 81) and F Cone (71). Center: H Wright (NA 71-75, NL 76-81). Years with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012).
Photo C
Dated 1871. Two detail views of a Mort Rogers’ Photographic Score Card featuring H Wright (NA 71-75, NL 76-81). This same image was used in several photo collages from 1871, see photos A and B. This portrait of Harry Wright can be distinguished from others of Wright in a Boston uniform by the fact that Wright does not have a full beard, suggesting an early photo date. Note in the detail view at right that the letter forms on the shirt were irregular, suggesting that the letters were hand-cut or hand-painted onto the shirt. Years Wright with team from baseball-reference.com. Historian John Thorn has written that the Rogers’ Photographic Score Cards were first sold in Cincinnati the week that Boston (NA) played Olympic, Washington DC (NA), in a neutral site game in Cincinnati on July 4, 1871. One day earlier these two teams organized a Red Stocking reunion game in Cincinnati. Boston and Olympic players that had previously been members of the defunct Cincinnati team of 1869-1870 were pitted against a “picked nine” comprised of the remaining players. Thorn research from the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, July 3, 1871. Per the Rogers’ card, the original photo of Wright was by James W. Black, Boston.
Photo D
Dated 1871, possibly May 1871 to October 1871. Portrait of S Jackson (71), full view at left, detail view at right. Photo year confirmed as this was Jackson’s only year with the team. This portrait may have been made between May 1871 and October 1871 as Jackson first played for Boston on May 9, 1871, when shortstop G Wright was injured in a collision with left fielder F Cone. The injury to Wright happened in the sixth inning of a game with the Haymaker team at Troy NY. A newspaper report of the game stated that “Wright was injured so severely that he withdrew from the field. Jackson was substituted, and did the best hitting of the game.” (Some historians have written that the incident happened on June 17, 1871, in a game against Mutual, New York.) Wright missed the remainder of the 1871 season and Jackson played in 16 of the team’s total of 31 games. Note that Jackson wore his shirt untucked for this sitting. This portrait was included in two separate photo collages of the Boston team, see photos A & B. Year Jackson with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012). Number of games Jackson played for Boston from baseball-reference.com. Info on the Wright injury from the New York Tribune, May 10, 1871. Image scan from the New York Public Library. Original photo may have been made by James W. Black, Boston, though there are no markings on this print to confirm this.
Photo E
Dated 1871. Portrait of F Barrows (71), full view at left, detail view at right. Photo year confirmed as this was Barrow’s only year with the team. Note that Barrows wore his dress pants for this portrait, not his baseball pants. This portrait was used in the photo collage of the Boston team, see photo B. Year Barrow with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012). Image scan from the New York Public Library. Original photo by James W. Black, Boston.
Photo F
Dated 1871-1875. Portrait of R Barnes (71-75), full view at left, detail view at right. Due to similarities to the Barrows portrait, this portrait of Barnes may also have been made in 1871. Note that Barnes wore his dress pants for this portrait, not his baseball pants. This portrait was not included in either of the photo collages of the Boston team shown above, see photos A & B. Year Barnes with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012). Image scan from the New York Public Library. Original photo by James W. Black, Boston. The photographer’s markings on the back of this photo card were identical to those of the Barrows print.
Photo G
Dated 1871 to 1897, montage of portraits of the 1871 team, published in 1897, full view at left, detail view at right. These illustrations were drawn from photographs taken in 1871, however the style of the illustrations would suggest these drawings were made at the time of publishing. The caption “The original Red Stockings” would also suggest a later date.
Clockwise from top left: F Cone (71), G Wright (NA 71-75, NL 76-78, 80, 81), H Schafer (NA 71-75, NL 76-78), A Spalding (71-75), R Barnes (71-75), C McVey (71,72,74,75), C Gould (71-75) and S Jackson (71). In center: H Wright (NA 71-75, NL 76-81) and D Birdsall (71-73). Image and player IDs from George V. Tuohey, A History of the Boston Base Ball Club (1897). Years with team from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams Of The National Association, 1871-1875 (2012).
Written documentation on this uniform:
February 1871: “For some time now the fraternity hereabouts [in Boston] have been interested to know what sort of uniform the Boston Club would adopt, and at a recent meeting of the Club this important matter was settled by the selection of a uniform already familiar to the eyes of every base ball player in the country, and one which has attached to it a prestige such as no other enjoys. It is similar to that worn by the Cincinnati Club the last two seasons, which gained for them the sobriquet ‘Red Stockings.’ There may be some who will question the propriety of the Boston Club selecting a uniform which has already been worn on the field, but these questions will be set at rest when it is known that this uniform originated with Mr. Harry Wright, now of the Boston Club, who was the first person to don it [for Cincinnati], and now that the Cincinnati nine, which achieved such fame while wearing it, are no more, the uniform can with perfect propriety be selected by its originator for his new nine. The uniform […] consists of a white flannel suit of shirt, knee breeches and cap, red stockings reaching to the knees, and a red belt. On the shirt front the word ‘Boston,’ in red German text, will be worked, which, with the usual canvas gaiters, will complete the uniform.” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 23, 1871, citing the Boston Journal, February 20, 1871. Research from Ed Morton.
March 1871: “[In the National Association] the Athletics will wear blue stockings, and also the Olympics. The Chicagoans will wear white stockings, and the Mutuals green. The Haymakers will wear blue checked stockings, and the Boston nine the red stockings.” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 3, 1871. Research from Don Stokes.
March 1871: “The uniform of the Boston nine will be at once pretty and useful, consisting of white flannel cap and shirt, the latter having the word ‘Boston’ worked on the front in red letters, white pants with red belt, and red stockings.” From the Spirit Of The Times (NY), March 18, 1871. Research from Brian McKenna.
April 1871, uniform referenced in a published letter from Harry Wright on the activities of the Boston team: “We open the season on Thursday — Fast Day [April 27, 1871] — playing against a picked nine. […] We will appear then for the first time in our new uniform.” From the New York Clipper, April 15, 1871.
May 1871: “The first grand match of the [championship] series will take place in Washington [DC] on Thursday, May 4th, between the Boston ‘Red Stockings’ and the Olympic ‘Blue Stockings’ of Washington.” From the New York Clipper, May 6, 1871.
May 27, 1871, Boston v. Olympic, Washington DC, at Brooklyn, Union Grounds: “We never saw a more finished display of the beauties of the game than on the occasion of the third game played between Harry Wright’s Red Stocking nine, of Boston, and the Blue Stocking nine of the Olympic Club, of Washington.” From the New York Clipper, June 3, 1871.
1871, referenced in 1954: “The question of the uniform was left to Harry Wright, and naturally he borrowed from the Cincinnati Red Stocking pattern. ‘It consists of a white flannel suit, of shirt, knee breeches and cap, red stockings reaching the knees, and a red belt,’ went a description. ‘On the front the word Boston in red German text will be worked, which, with the usual canvas gaiters, will complete the uniform.” From Harold Kaese, The Boston Braves 1871-1953 (1954). Supporting documentation not given or not available on scan of book, however this description was seemingly derived from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle report of February 23, 1871, see above.
Team genealogy: Boston 1871-1952
Boston was formed to enter the National Association (NA) in 1871. The NA was baseball’s first league, operating 1871-1875. Boston played in the NA in every year of the league’s existence and moved to the National League (NL) upon its start in 1876. Boston played in the NL from 1876 to 1952 and moved to Milwaukee for the 1953 NL season. Information from Paul Batesel, Players And Teams of the National Association, 1871-1875, from baseball-reference.com and from wikipedia.com.
Rendering posted: February 12, 2015
Diggers on this uniform: Brian McKenna, Don Stokes, Ed Morton,