This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/11/2015
This unique offering features a vintage 1877 St. Paul Red Caps photo display. All 9 of the starters from the very first professional baseball team in Minnesota are represented on this display. Photos include: Harry Salisbury (Pitcher), Emil Gross (Catcher), Joe Miller (Captain, 2B), Ed Gault (1B), Joe Ellick (3B), Sumner Ely (LF), Birmingham (RF), Art Allison (CF) and Bill McClellan (SS). The display itself measures 20x27 while the photos measure 4x7 inches each and were taken by Charles A. Zimmerman who was an immensely popular photographer during the era. Two of the photos of come lose over the last 138 years but the display remains in remarkable condition considering its age. The transition from amateur to professional baseball in Minnesota happened before either the Saints or Millers existed, with the St. Paul Red Caps in 1877.
The Red Caps won the League Alliance, a loosely affiliated league that hoped to rival the National League. The Red Caps played only one season because of money problems, and pro ball wasn't attempted again in St. Paul until 1884, when the St. Paul Base Ball Club, or White Caps, played nine road games in the Union Association.
"Pretty unremarkable story, but the interesting part is there was a major league baseball team in St. Paul," said Stew Thornley, a Roseville author and official major league baseball scorer who is writing a history of the Saints and baseball in St. Paul.
Charles Zimmerman (1844-1909) was quite the renaissance man and started his career as a photographer at a very young age: He constructed a camera obscura when he was just fourteen years old. Zimmerman brought this device to the pioneer photographer Joel Whitney who was so impressed with the ingenuity and industry of the young Zimmerman that he offered him a job in his daguerreotype gallery. Zimmerman’s career was soon put on hold: Once he turned eighteen he enlisted to fight in the Civil War. In 1865 Zimmerman returned to St. Paul and resumed work in Whitney’s gallery and studio. In 1867 Zimmerman took over Whitney’s photography business.
He was also a prolific writer and talented painter. He wrote articles for both local and national publications. He wrote scientific articles about chemistry and optics. His watercolor paintings “The Light Shell” and “Trying for a Double” are fairly well known and considered to be well executed works. Zimmerman obtained the pseudonym Commodore late in life when he owned and operated a fleet of steamboats on Lake Minnetonka.
Truly unique piece of Minnesota professional baseball history.