Vintage Athletes - Part 30

 Muybridge Baseball Players

Today's post is about University of Pennsylvania baseball players captured by stop-motion photography pioneer Eadweard Muybridge in the 1880s.  But first, a bit of background.

Eadweard Muybridge was born in England in 1830 as Edward Muggeridge.  He emigrated to the U.S. at age 20, and became a bookseller, then a photographer.  He changed his name several times during his career, eventually settling on Eadweard Muybridge.

In the 1870s, Leland Stanford, the former Governor of California, asked Muybridge to photograph his racehorse running, which cameras at the time could not capture – this was before the movie camera existed.  Muybridge worked on the problem for years, finally creating a battery of 12 cameras that were electrically triggered.  The gif above was made from the images of Stanford's horse Sallie Gardner.  The images proved that at times, all four feet of a galloping horse are off the ground.

In 1883, a group of Pennsylvanians recruited Muybridge to work at the University of Pennsylvania.  Over the next few years, with improved equipment, Muybridge took more than 100,000 photos of humans and animals in motion.  20,000 of the photos were published in his groundbreaking 1887 book Animal Locomotion.

The human subjects were depicted doing all kinds of things, from simple walking to various sports.  The male subjects were almost always nude, presumably to scientifically depict the human body in motion.  16 plates in the book depicted baseball, which is my subject today.

According to the book, the “greater number of [human models] engaged in walking, running, jumping, and other athletic games are students or graduates of The University of Pennsylvania – young men aged from eighteen to twenty-four – each one of whom has a well-earned record in the particular feat selected for illustration.”  In other words, the models for the baseball photos are Penn baseball players.

Muybridge's catalogue of photographic plates identified the models only by number, not by name.  Above is a gif from plate 276 of model 25 batting.

This gif from plate 286 shows the same guy (model 25) pitching.  There were two other baseball plates depicting model 25.

There were 11 baseball plates depicting model 30.  Above is a gif from plate 275 depicting model 30 batting a low ball.

Each plate contains multiple sequences of images that were triggered a split-second apart, so that when combined they show motion.  For example, plate 275 contains 12 images taken from the front and 12 images taken from the side.  I made the gif above from the 12 front images.

This gif from plate 283 shows the same guy (model 30) catching and throwing.

This gif from plate 280 shows model 30 catching a ball.

The one remaining baseball plate, plate 287, showed a third subject, model 26, running and picking up a ball.

The question is, who were models 25, 30 and 26?  Because Muybridge used Penn students who played the sports being shown, three main candidates have been proposed.  The first is Morris Hacker, Jr., depicted above c. 1890, who was on the Penn baseball team and was known to have modeled for Muybridge.

Some sources have identified model 25 as Hacker.  I think that's correct.  This image of model 25 from plate 276 looks a lot like the 1890 photo of Hacker.  Even his hairline with the indentation above the temple matches.

The second candidate is Thomas Love Latta, who was catcher and captain of the Penn baseball team and is also known to have modeled for Muybridge.  He is pictured above in 1887 as a senior at Penn.

Several sources have identified model 30 as Latta.  One source identified him as Glendinning (below), but that seems wrong.  Glendinning had curly hair parted in the middle, and model 30 (above, from plate 280) had straight hair parted on the side.  Also, Latta was the catcher on the baseball team, and model 30 was used for Muybridge's baseball catching sequences.  Although the 1887 photo of Latta has a mustache and model 30 doesn't, I don't think that's significant.  Student mustaches come and go.  So, I agree that model 30 is Latta.

The last candidate is Robert Edward Glendinning, above c. 1888.  He was only a Penn student for his freshman year, but he was on the baseball team, and he is also known to have modeled for Muybridge.

However, that doesn't mean that model 26 is Glendinning.  The model is wearing a cap, so we can't see his hair, and in baseball plate 287 we only see him from the side.  But model 26 was also used for some other non-baseball plates.  Above are some images from plate 151, which shows him ascending and descending stairs carrying a rock, in which we see his face.  Although again I discount the mustache, and we can't see his hair, he just doesn't look like the 1888 photo of Glendinning.  So, I'm going to say that model 26 is still unknown.

As a postscript, here's a gif from plate 490 showing model 95 sitting down in a chair.  Model 95 was described as "an ex-athlete."  It's actually Muybridge himself.  He was not ashamed to appear nude along with his student models.

And this photo from plate 490 reveals one interesting fact: Muybridge had an enormous left testicle.

By the way, Muybridge was not gay.  In 1871, the 41-year old Muybridge married 21-year old Flora Stone, and in 1874 she gave birth to a son.  Then Muybridge discovered that while he was away on photographic expeditions, his wife was having an affair.  He tracked down his wife's lover, said "I have a message for you from my wife," and shot him point-blank.  Muybridge was tried for murder in 1875, but the jury acquitted him on the grounds of justifiable homicide.