1924 INAUGURAL NEGRO LEAGUE WORLD SERIES MONARCHS/HILLDALE PANORAMIC PHOTO WITH 8 HALL OF FAMERS.
Item Description
Presented here is what many Negro League Baseball historians consider to be the single most important photograph of the pre-integration era. 14-3/8x42.5" frame contains original Type I panoramic photo that has been professionally double-matted to 6.75x35" under UV glass.This photo was taken by noted photographer J.E. Miller (Kansas City) on October 11, 1924 prior to Game 5 of the Negro League World Series between the Kansas City Monarchs and the Hilldale Giants. Among the total of 41 individuals pictured are eight future Baseball Hall of Fame selectees, more than appear on any other surviving original Negro League Baseball photograph. Here are the identifications from left to right: Floyd (KC Trainer), Hurley McNair, Newt Joseph, Yellowhorse Morris, Oscar "Heavy" Johnson, Bullet Joe Rogan (HOF), Newt Allen, Jose Mendez (HOF), Dobie Moore, William Bell, Lem Hawkins, Frank Duncan, Cliff Bell, Deke Mothell, Bill McCall, William Drake, George Sweatt, J.L. Wilkinson (HOF), Dr. Smith, Spedden, Alex Pompez (HOF), Rube Foster (HOF), Ed Bolden, Louis Santop (HOF), Nip Winters, Rube Currie, Scrip Lee, George Carr, George Johnson, Judy Johnson (HOF), Red Ryan, Biz Mackey (HOF), Tom Allen, William Campbell, Joe Lewis, Clint Thomas, Phil Cockrell, Otto Briggs, Frank Warfield, Jake Stevens, Lambert
In order to fully appreciate the importance of this historic piece, let's take a step back and learn how these two teams and two leagues reached the pinnacle of their profession. Back in the late 1910's, Rube Foster, former Black Baseball superstar pitcher, along with several other Midwestern businessmen, set out to organize a black baseball league that could compete and survive beyond its first season of existence, a feat which had yet to be accomplished up to this point in time. As 1920 rolled around, Rube was able to gather together eight black baseball team owners from the Midwest along with six team owners from the East to form the Negro National League. Inaugural members for the Western Division included Rube's own Chicago American Giants, the Detroit Stars, KC Monarchs, Indianapolis ABC's, St. Louis Giants, Cuban Stars, Dayton Marcos and the Chicago Giants. Understanding the importance of competitive balance, Foster would sell off and trade a number of his star players from the 1910's American Giants that were widely regarded as the best black team in the land. The original six ball clubs making up the Eastern Division were the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Philadelphia Hilldales, Bacharach Giants, Baltimore Black Sox, New York Cuban Stars and New York Lincoln Giants.
Moving forward to 1922, as the Negro National League was in its third year of existence, Ed Bolden, owner of the Philadelphia Hilldales team decided to try and recruit the personnel and necessary resources to break away from Foster's Negro National League and form his own black baseball league, to be called the Eastern Colored League. The primary basis for Bolden's decision had to do with an ongoing power struggle and related feud with Rube Foster. During the winter of 1922, Bolden was able to persuade six current black ball club owners to begin the 1923 season as initial members of his newly formed Eastern Colored League. These first six teams were Bolden's Philadelphia Hilldales, the New York Cuban Stars, Brooklyn Royal Giants, Atlantic City Bacharachs, New York Lincoln Giants and the Baltimore Black Sox.
As both black baseball leagues continued on successfully through 1923 and 1924, many interested parties as well as fans and press, began clamoring for a post-season championship series to determine which team could be classified as World Champions of Colored Baseball. Finally, as the 1924 season was winding down both Foster and Bolden agreed to put their long-standing feud aside and play a post-season "Best of 9" championship series to determine a champion for 1924. This series was dubbed as the "Negro League World Series" as you had the two regular season champs from two different leagues playing for a "World Championship of Colored Baseball" for the first time ever.
The World Series itself was a hotly contested match with several games decided by a single run and even a tie game mixed in for good measure. The planned nine game series actually ended up going to a tenth and deciding game as KC and Hilldale were deadlocked at 4 wins apiece with 1 tie. The tenth and final game ended up going to the Monarchs, who became negro baseball champions for 1924. Future Hall of Famer, Jose Mendez was named the series MVP as HOF Owner, J.L. Wilkinson's club took the first ever Negro Baseball Championship. Additionally, HOF'er Bullet Joe Rogan had been named the MVP of the Negro National League during the regular season so the Monarchs swept the individual awards along w/their team championship.
The Monarchs would go on to win the Negro National League championship for the next two seasons as well and became widely regarded as the best team in Negro League Baseball during the 1920's. Hilldale also had a very successful run, winning another Eastern Colored League championship the following season and defeating the Monarchs in the 1925 Negro League World Series.
As you can see from all of the events leading up to the day that this photo was taken, it is clear why many believe this panoramic to be the ultimate piece of memorabilia to own if you could only have one item to represent the history of Negro League Baseball. In fact, no lesser of an authority than world renowned Negro League historian, Larry Lester, co-founder of the Negro League Museum in KC, authored an entire book dedicated to the pictured event, entitled "Baseball's First Colored World Series". Furthermore, Mr. Lester indicates that this photograph depicting the two World Series teams is his favorite Negro League image of all-time.
Adding to the appeal of this extraordinary photograph is the fact that very few examples are known to have survived. It is widely believed that these panoramic photos were only distributed by the photography studio to the participants of the 1924 NL World Series. Extensive research indicates that only a few other examples have ever been sold at auction and none have been offered for sale over the past several years. Past auction prices realized for these have included $29,375 in 2011 and $26,290 in 2009.
Photo was originally rolled as most photos of this type and age were and has been professionally cleaned and mounted to archival backing. Photo shows wear throughout, including scattered light to moderate creases (including two more pronounced vertical creases traversing entire image area at left and right) and four .5" to 1" spots of surface paper loss surrounded by some discoloration (this affects Bullet Joe Rogan, Cliff Bell/Deke Mothell, Scrip Lee and Tom Allen). Players' faces remain intact aside from small stain to Mothell's face. Alex Pompez also has small spot of discoloration to face. Photo exhibits some scattered dust soiling/soiling to open air portion of stadium bleachers; not affecting player images. Left margin has small corner tip off top corner and .25" margin chip to top left margin. Bottom left corner is missing .75x2.75" piece, which includes the legs of Monarchs trainer Floyd. VG overall but despite condition issues, still displays very nicely as conservationally framed. The image quality is phenomenal, rarely do you see a crystal clear panoramic that is nearly 100 years old.
It goes without saying that, despite some of the technical flaws mentioned, this is the type of piece that would be the crown jewel of any Negro League Baseball collection. It could be a long time, if ever, that you get the opportunity to pick up one of these again. As an added bonus, we are pleased to offer a copy of Larry Lester's book to the winning bidder, which will provide even more biographical information from this historic season. Finally, please take a look at lot #540 of this auction as we offer the perfect accompanying piece to this photo, an original 1924 Hilldale Giants team photo, an image of which also appears on the front cover of Larry Lester's book.
