A Comparison of Early Football Photographs to Newspaper Sketches of the Same Period (First Installment)

We had often wondered when doing research on early football, as a good number of us do routinely, whether the drawings and sketches we see printed in newspapers and magazines from those periods are really accurate representations.  After a number of years we have found dozens of comparisons of early newspaper sketches with photographs we own, primarily in the 1893 to 1898 time period. What we found gave us a new appreciation for the legitimacy of early drawings and sketches that describe football life and related events in particular.

Our conclusion from comparisons is that in general we can utilize with a high degree of confidence such newspaper and magazine sketches when doing our research.

For example, compare the newspaper sketch titled An After–Dinner Discussion (from a newspaper page of drawings all related to the Princeton football team) with the photograph of the Princeton team (oversized Albumin cabinet); the same down to the finer details. The photograph is c.1896, and some of the more recognizable individuals are Thomas Trenchard, Dudley Riggs, A.L. Wheeler, and Langdon Lea, all of Mayo card fame, as well as S.H. Thompson, F.L. Smith, A.H. Rosengarten, D.M. Balliet, H.C Armstrong, W.H. Bannard, William Church, R. Gailey, John Baird and Johnny Poe, who would have already graduated but may have been back preparing for his assistant coaching duties. As a start, Riggs is in the center holding his hat, to his right is Trenchard and behind him is Johnny Poe. You can try your luck or skill identifying the others.

This photo is one in a set and belonged to Princeton All-American William W. Church, class of 1897.

We will be including other such examples in this blog over time.