Original glass plate negative picturing Cubs catcher Roger Bresnahan and three of his teammates, taken by noted Chicago photographer Francis Burke, used to produce Bresnahan’s 1914/1915 Cracker Jack card. The image captures, left to right, Jimmy Archer, Mike Hechinger, Roger Bresnahan, and Tom Needham, as they pose together in front of the dugout. These were the four catchers on the Cubs’ roster in 1913, which was the only season in which the club wore this uniform style. Cracker Jack cards were produced by the Chicago firm Rueckheim Brothers & Eckstein, so it was only natural that the company turned to hometown photographer Francis Burke when it needed images for its now iconic card set. Bresnahan was one of many player images supplied by Burke for the set, including such stars as Walter Johnson, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, and Napoleon Lajoie. This is one of several Francis Burke Cracker Jack negatives featured in this auction, all of which, of course, are one of a kind. Many collectors will also recognize this image as one that is very similar to that which appears on a 1909-16 PC758 Max Stein postcard. The Max Stein postcard pictures a large image of Johnny Evers superimposed on top of a near-identical photo of these four players. It was obviously taken at the same photo shoot that produced this image, only the players have slightly shifted their positions. The negative (8.5x6.5") displays minor flaws, mainly along the periphery, but the central image remains unaffected. EX.

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.