From The Scrapbook Of Princeton All-American William Church

There are hundreds of items in William Church's scrapbook, and we have posted some of the more interesting photographs and ephemera previously on this blog (Jan 2, 2014, Sept 14, 2013, Feb 13, 2014, Nov 2, 2014, July 21, 2013).
Going through one of our bins tonight, we chose a few more pieces that we thought interesting to post. Church kept absolutely everything.

    Church's scrapbook contains over one hundred newspaper clippings and articles.

                          Church even kept his train tickets - this selection from 1895.

                                  ..."do up Yale at all hazards". What a great quote!

Extremely Rare Sheet Music Featuring Native American John Levi

Published in 1929, this football themed sheet music is nearly impossible to locate a copy of, and our interest in Native American football made this something of great interest to us. The cover features Arapaho Indian John Levi, who rivaled Jim Thorpe as the greatest Native American athlete. Tradition holds that Thorpe considered Levi the greatest athlete that he had seen. Levi played and coached at the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas (All-American) and was a player/coach for the professional Hominy Indian team (see our blog entries of August 14, 2013 and August 3, 2015). 

Cyanotype of the 1900 Dartmouth Varsity Captains and Managers

Cyanotypes of sports subjects are not common but can be found, and this is one of the best examples we have come across. Having a unique blue hue, these photos are known for their clarity and resistance to fading.

Front row left to right are Irving French, captain of the varsity baseball team, Frank William Lowe, football captain and Frederick White Haskell, captain of the track team.

Back row left to right are Joseph Raphael, manager of the baseball team, Harry Washburn, manager of the football team and Verson Gooch, manager of the track team.
French and Haskell were also classmates at Philips Andover Academy, representing the same sports they played at Dartmouth.
It is interesting to note that most sports related cyanotypes that have come on the market in the last five or six years happen to have Dartmouth as their subject matter. It was likely the preference of, or possibly simply experimentation with a lesser utilized photographic process, by a singular photographer for a relatively short period of time.