Original glass plate negative capturing a play at the plate during the 1910 World Series produced by noted Chicago photographer Francis Burke. The image pictures a member of the Philadelphia Athletics crossing the plate as the Cubs' catcher awaits the throw at Chicago's West Side Grounds. The Cubs hosted Games 3, 4, and 5 of the 1910 World Series, with the A's winning all three of those contests in defeating the Cubs four games to one. The victory marked the first of three World Championships in four years for Connie Mack's talented club. The negative (7x5") displays minor flaws, mainly along the periphery, common to nearly all early 1900s glass negatives. Additionally, there is a small chip along the base, a few tiny scratches in the central image, and a small white label affixed to the upper right corner on the reverse. The erroneous blue-ink notation "Cubs & Detroit" is written along the top border. GD-VG. 

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.