Adams Academy Foot Ball Club 1884

 The players are identified and the photo titled “Foot Ball Club 1884” in the lower margin.  A number of the players on this team became very well-known and many were from historically prominent families.

Two in particular were Charles Francis Adams lll and Charles Allen Porter.

Charles Francis Adams 3^rd , center, with his foot resting on the ball, attended Harvard after leaving Adams Academy, class of ‘88 and Harvard Law ’92.  Adams proposed to Congress that the USS Constitution be restored, which it then was,  served under President Hoover as the Secretary of the Navy, and skippered the Resolute, winning the America’s Cup in 1920. He also won the King’s Cup, the Astor Cup and the Puritan Cup. The Navy destroyer USS Charles F. Adams was dedicated to him. Adams was a great grandson of John Quincy Adams the sixth US president and a great great grandson of John Adams, the second US President.

Charles Allen Porter (sitting to the right in the photo of Adams, arms crossed) also attended Harvard, class of ’88, followed by Harvard Medical School where he became a professor of Surgery and was a Chief Surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital. At Harvard, Porter played for the varsity Football Eleven in 1886, ’87 and ’88.

I came home from Brimfield yesterday with this in hand. The photo is dirty, with some staining, a rip to the lower left and some fading to the names of the sitters. As researchers and collectors, these condition issues don’t bother us much, as it is an imposing photo and we take into account it’s age (from the early years of American football), rarity and importance. It has that great feel to it. Measures 17 ¾ x 14 ¾ including the albumin margin.

See related blog post on Adams Academy February 12, 2023