Original glass plate negative of Boston Red Sox outfielder Tris Speaker produced by noted Chicago photographer Francis Burke. The image pictures Speaker as he strikes a fielding pose in front of the dugout prior to a game at Chicago's Comiskey Park. Based upon the uniform style shown here, this image was taken sometime between the years 1912 and 1915. A .345 lifetime hitter and the greatest defensive center fielder of his day, Speaker helped lead the Red Sox to World Championships in both 1912 and 1915. The negative (7x5") displays minor flaws, mainly along the periphery, common to nearly all early 1900s glass plate negatives, but the central image area remains largely unaffected. "Speaker" is written black ink on each side of the negative, while the number "13" appears in each corner. 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.