1867 Mohawk, Brooklyn

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: confirmed    Team: confirmed

Visual documentation on this uniform:

Photo A

Photo B

Two photos of the Mohawk Club, each showing a different set of nine players all uniformed the same. The photos likely represented the two playing squads of the club.

Photo A, dated 1867. Year of photo A determined by the name and date on the print in the lower right, which reads “A. Berger. Photog. 1867.” Collector John Gennantonio has written to Threads suggesting that A. Berger may be Anthony Berger of Mathew Brady’s studio.

Detail view of photo A showing the photographer’s mark. This detail view also showed the painterly quality of the image, suggesting that much of the photograph was enhanced by an artist.

Anthony Berger with Mathew Brady.
Jeff Richman of the Green-Wood [Cemetery] Historic Fund in Brooklyn has researched the subject as there is a person with that name buried in the cemetery. He writes that “in the 1860s, Anthony Berger ran Mathew Brady’s Washington D.C. National Photographic Art Gallery. It was Berger who, during the Civil War, took some of the most famous portraits of President Abraham Lincoln.” A studio portrait of Lincoln by Berger was later used for the Lincoln penny and according to Chris Nelson of Military Images Digital, the scene taken in studio by Berger of Lincoln flipping through a photo album with his son Tad “ranks as the most important Lincoln image next to the iconic portraits on currency and coin.” Typically, these images were attributed only to Mathew Brady and his studio. Nelson adds that Berger was “born Anton Berger in Germany” and that “he immigrated to the United States in 1854 and became a naturalized citizen in 1861. [He was] a self-described artist and gifted photographer in Brooklyn, N.Y.”

Berger in Brooklyn.
Though some genealogists today are uncertain where Berger went after his time with Brady, it is likely the Lincoln photographer was also the Brooklyn photographer. Researcher Craig Heberton has found that Berger was in Brooklyn in 1865 when he submitted a drawing based on the Lincoln-Tad photograph to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on May 9, 1865, just several weeks after the assassination. The Eagle wrote that “we have received a very fine India Ink drawing of President Lincoln reading the Bible to his son Willie [not Tad?], designed and executed by Mr. A. Berger of 285 Fulton street in this city. Mr. Berger will conduct the photograph business at the above location hereafter.” Heberton specualtes that Berger may have left Brady as others did due to the studio’s financial troubles in 1864 and 1865. The Eagle report seemingly connects the Brady photographer with the Brooklyn artist. Additionally, there were many reprints and retouched versions of the Lincoln-Tad image circulated after Lincoln’s assassination, at times these images were attributed to different photographers. Several late-century cabinet cards and CDVs of the image have the following imprinted on the photo mount: “Retouched and photographed by A. Berger, 285 Fulton St., Brooklyn.” In these versions Berger had retouched the photograph, changing the style of the chair Lincoln was sitting on and also added other room elements to the scene. When the original glass negative was made at Brady’s Studio, historians believe Lincoln was thumbing through a photo album, a prop owned by the studio. When the Berger reprints were made, the image was entitled “President A. Lincoln Reading The Bible to his Son.” Another mention of Berger as an artist of Lincoln comes from the Indianapolis News on November 19, 1900. The newspaper said that “Anthony Berger’s celebrated oil painting of Abraham Lincoln, which is now exhibited at the Frankfort Art Gallery, is soon to have a place in the United States consulate at Berlin,” and that “the artist was born in Frankfort.” Surely, this painting by Berger was based on one of his photographs of Lincoln.

More on Berger in Brooklyn.
Jeff Richman has searched the documents of the day, and believes Berger was living in New York, Manhattan, in 1860 where a man by that name was listed in the U.S. Census as working as a locksmith. Richman found that Berger was listed in the 1868 and 1870 Brooklyn city directories, occupation artist, and that in “the 1874 and 1876 Brooklyn directories, […] Berger’s occupation had morphed from ‘artist’ to ‘photographer.’” Richman has located Berger in New York in the 1870 US census and in Brooklyn in the 1880 and 1900 US censuses. Brooklyn city directories from the 1880s show Berger as a photographer living at Fulton Street. Richman has also found that an Anthony Berger was mentioned in the Brooklyn Daily Union on April 15, 1873, and in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on May 13, 1873, as a member of Brooklyn’s newly-formed Photographic Art Association. The Union in 1873 reported that Berger gave a presentation to the association on “retouching negatives and illustrated the same with pencil drawings.”

Berger’s obituary, or lack thereof.
The Brooklyn Anthony Berger (1825-1906) was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery. According to the Green-Wood Burial Index, Berger was laid to rest on March 19, 1906. Surprisingly, no obituary has been found and apparently nothing was written at the time of Berger’s death about his prominent role in the photographs of Lincoln.

—Berger info from Jeff Richman, Where in the World is Anthony Berger?, posted January 28, 2014 to green-wood.com, retrieved March 16, 2025; from Chris Nelson, Anthony Berger’s Intimate Portrait of a Beleaguered Wartime Leader and His Son, posted March 6, 2022 to militaryimagesmagazine-digital.com, retrieved March 16, 2025; and from Craig Heberton, A. Berger Joint Opens at 285 Fulton St., Brooklyn, posted to abrahamlincolngettysburg.wordpress.com, July 15, 2014, retrieved March 17, 2025.

Jeff Anderson has written to Threads to say that the player in photo A standing third from left “looks like my 3x-grand grandfather, William ‘Bill’ Lennon.” Anderson adds: “I have found a good deal of amateur info for Lennon. The August 31, 1867 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported him and two others going to the Mohawks. The same paper mentioned the move again on February 13, 1868. Multiple papers report Lennon playing for the Mohawks throughout the 1868 season.” A positive identification of Lennon cannot be confirmed and additionally, none of the players in photo A have been positively identified.

Dated 1867. Two detail views of photo A. The Mohawk Club Constitution from 1867 stated that the uniform was to include “a blue cap with the letter ‘M’ within a white star on top.” The letter can be seen in the detail view at right. The detail view at right also suggests that the photograph was enhanced by an artist, especially noticeable in the painted shadows on the cap. This may further support the theory that the photographer, Anthony Berger, also worked as a retouch artist. Detail views from John Gennantonio.

Photo B, dated 1866 or 1867. Year of 1867 for photo B suggested by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on March 4, 1917, which published this photo along with the headline, “Mohawk Baseball Club of 1867, Famous in Baseball History.“ The published photo included player IDs and was accompanied by an article about former New York State Senator Eugene F. O’Connor, standing fifth from left in photo B. The article stated that in 1867 O’Connor “became captain of the Mohawk club of Brooklyn.” It also included his reminiscence about the teams he played for in the 1860s, noting that “none of us got a dollar for our services. We even bought our own uniforms and combined to buy our bats and balls.” According to Marshall D. Wright in The National Association Of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870 (2000) eight of the nine men in photo B played for Mohawk in 1866, and five of those men also played for the 1867 team. This suggests photo B was of the 1866 team, see player IDs below. A large-format albumen print of photo B came up for auction in the Spring of 2012. The auction house noted that on the back of the photo mount there was a hand-written caption that stated the year as “about 1867” and with the following notes, “Grandfather’s base ball team. He was about 20 yrs of age. Albert Steiner, 3rd from left, outfielder and manager.” The caption stated this was a photo of a “gentleman’s baseball team in Brooklyn before the game became a national affair.” According to Wright, Steiner played for Mohawk in 1866 and 1867. Info on hand-written caption from Robert Edward Auctions and Jeff Anderson. Unlike photo A, photo B did not include the signature of Anthony Berger or a date. However, the similarity in the studio setting of both images would suggest these were made on the same day.

Players in photo B, from left: Abe Silleck, first base; Sam Delisser, shortstop; Albert Steiner, left field; Jacob Steiner, right field; Eugene F. O’Connor, third base and captain; Kelly, pitcher; Wash Weeks, catcher; William Forker, second base and Chauncey Ryder, center field. Player IDs from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 4, 1917. Research from John Gennantonio. Marshall Wright identified eight of the nine men in photo B as belonging to the 1866 Mohawk roster. For the 1866 roster, he did not list pitcher Kelly, listed Ryder as the pitcher, and included outfielder-third baseman Hoagland and outfielder Behr. For the 1867 roster, Wright listed 5 players, both Steiners, Silleck, Weeks and O’Connor, repeating from 1866. He also listed players named Davenport and Miles. Wright did not list rosters for Mohawk for any other year besides 1866 and 1867. More research needed here. Want to help?

Players in both images were photographed wearing the same uniform. The uniform consisted of a white coat and dark pants. The cap was dark with white ribbing and a star on top. The Mohawk Club Constitution from 1867 stated that the uniform “shall be a blue cap with the letter ‘M’ within a white star on top, white jacket, and blue pants with white cord.”

Written documentation on this uniform:
1867: “The uniform of the [Mohawk] Club shall be a blue cap with the letter ‘M’ within a white star on top, white jacket, and blue pants with white cord.” From the Constitution and By-Laws of the Mohawk Base Ball Club of the City of Brooklyn, N. Y. (1867). Research from John Gennantonio, who owns the original document.

1867, recounted in 1917: “Former [New York] State Senator Eugene F O’Connor […]has been an ardent fan for fifty years. When he was a young man he played with the famous Mohawks of Brooklyn. Senator O’Connor rarely speaks for publication, but when he saw in the collection at Ebbets Field one of the old baseballs won from the Mohawks by the more famous Atlantics, he grew reminiscent. ‘One of the old balls in the case of trophies at our big ball grounds as the name Mohawk on it,’ said the Senator. ‘That was one of the first teams with which I ever played. We lost the game to the Atlantics, but they had to play some to beat us. We played baseball in those days for the glory of it. None of us got a dollar for our services. We even bought our own uniforms and combined to buy our bats and balls.’” From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 4, 1917. Research from John Gennantonio.

Team genealogy: Coming soon