Original glass plate negative of the Chicago Cubs "Peerless Leader" Frank Chance produced by noted Chicago photographer Francis Burke. The image pictures Chance leaping high in the air as he simulates making a catch for the camera at Chicago's West Side Grounds. Based upon the uniform style, this shot was taken in either 1901, 1902, or 1904, making it an early Chance image. The beauty of this shot did not go unnoticed in publishing circles, as it was featured as an illustration on the May 1909 cover of The American Magazine and was also reproduced in the 1909 Reach Guide. The negative (7x5") displays several large cracks along the left border that have been repaired by a piece of vintage black tape on the reverse. A second clear plate has been added for support by means of black tape along all four borders. Despite the flaws, Chance's image is free of any significant defects. FR. 

 Francis P. Burke (1871-1949) was a prominent Chicago newspaper photographer whose work ranged far beyond baseball. He took thousands of images of immigrant life in Chicago and, in 1912, opened a photo studio with Henry A. Atwell (1879-1949), known as Burke & Atwell, that specialized in theatrical, magazine, and newspaper images. Sometime prior to 1929, Burke severed his partnership with Atwell and opened another studio known as Burke & Koretke. Burke had been the Cubs official photographer in the early 1900s but was later replaced by George Burke (in a story that has been told many times, and which may be apocryphal, Burke lost his job as Cubs photographer simply because a Cubs employee couldn't remember his first name and mistakenly confused him with George Burke). Nevertheless, he was still a frequent visitor to the ballpark and between the approximate years 1909 to 1916, Burke earned extra income by selling his baseball images to various Chicago-based businesses, including Rueckheim Bros. & Eckstein (Cracker Jack), Max Stein, Novelty Cutlery, Crystal Pure Candy Co., Carl Joseph & Co. (tailors), Royal Tailors, and Irwin Howe's Baseball Correspondence League of America, which published a "Pitching Course." To baseball collectors, Burke’s images are ubiquitous and instantly recognizable. Despite the range and relative scarcity of his work, his baseball images are arguably among the best of the deadball era.