Young Boy with Toy Baseball Bat — Spangler Studio Portrait

Photograph

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The Recorded Image Project

Name/Title

Young Boy with Toy Baseball Bat — Spangler Studio Portrait

Entry/Object ID

RE-PH-2026-0090

Description

Studio portrait of a young boy standing with a toy baseball bat, wearing a light summer outfit with striped knee socks.

Photograph Details

Type of Photograph

Gelatin Print - silver bromide

Category

boy, child

Made/Created

Studio

Spangler Studio

Date made

1915 - 1925

Time Period

20th Century

Place

State/Province

Arkansas

Continent

North America

Notes

Helena, Arkansas, United States

Ethnography

Notes

American, Southern United States; early 20th-century middle-class childhood portraiture reflecting popularization of baseball and modern casual children’s dress.

Inscription/Signature/Marks

Front imprint in stylized Art Nouveau lettering: “Spangler Studio — Helena, Ark.”

Condition

Overall Condition

Good

Date Examined

Mar 8, 2026

Notes

• Mild silvering and tonal fading • Minor foxing and small surface specks • Card mount shows edge wear and slight discoloration • Corners intact; no major creases

General Notes

Note Type

Description

Note

This early twentieth-century cabinet card portrait depicts a young boy posed proudly with a toy baseball bat in a professional studio in Helena, Arkansas. The child’s attire—a light summer sailor suit with belted shorts and striped hosiery—reflects evolving American children’s fashions of the 1910s–1920s, when practicality and informality increasingly replaced Victorian formality. The inclusion of the baseball bat signals the sport’s deep cultural entrenchment as a symbol of American boyhood, health, and recreation. Such portraits served not merely as likenesses but as expressions of family identity, modernity, and social aspiration in small-town America.

Create Date

March 9, 2026