Lot # 77: 1889 Danville Browns Team Cabinet with African American Player R. A. Kelley SGC POOR 1

According to Merl F. Kleinknecht's article, Blacks in 19th Century Organized Baseball, at least 55 Black players have been named as having played professional baseball at some level during the 1800s. One of those was R. A. Kelley, who played with Danville in the Illinois-Indiana League in 1889 and with Jamestown of the New York-Penn League in 1890 and 1891. Kelley's involvement with Danville is confirmed by the discovery of this exceedingly rare team cabinet card capturing 13 members of the 1889 Danville Browns, champions of the Illinois-Indiana League. Each member is shown in uniform, with the exception of team manager H. T. Smith, who is pictured in the center. Kelley is pictured in the upper right corner and, like all of the players, is identified in print below his image (last name only; a few with first initial as well) . Although all of the lettering on the photo is faint, most can be discerned under magnification. In addition to Kelley, other team members included here are J. Fogarty, L. Welch, Gray, Elliott, Mills, and Tully. The lettering along the base of the photo reads in part "Souvenir/Champions of I. I. League." The photographer's credit appears along the base of the mount: "Compliments of Watson, Danville, Ills. Copyrighted August 21, 1889." Further advertising for Watson's photography studio appears on the reverse. Also on the reverse are handwritten identifications, in blue ink, of all of the players pictured on the front, as well as the notation "Danville Team/1889/Champions of League." As one might expect, records from this era are practically nonexistent, so we have no way of knowing the extent of Kelley's accomplishments for Danville that year. However, the fact that he was on the team at all, given the overwhelming prejudice of the times, indicates that his play had to be of the highest caliber for him to even be considered for a roster spot. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only known photographic image of Kelley, as well as the 1889 Danville club, making it a rare and historically significant artifact relating to early integration in professional baseball. The cabinet card (4.25 x 6.5 inches) has been encapsulated and graded POOR 1 by SGC (submitted by REA) due to a small puncture in the upper-left quadrant and the writing on the reverse. Despite the flaws, the card presents at a level higher than that suggested by its technically accurate grade.