Pastime in Print: Baseball’s Journey Through Art, Ads, and American Identity

Baseball imagery became part of the national visual landscape and a record of the sport.

The Ghost Players wearing 1919 Chicago White Sox uniforms emerge from the same cornfield depicted in the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams.” Scott K Baker/Shutterstock

Mention the movie “Field of Dreams,” and people immediately think of baseball. But the film is about much more than the game itself. As the character Terence Mann observes, “It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.”

For nearly 180 years, organized baseball has represented more than competition on the field. It has held a unique place in American life, serving as a constant through times of change and uncertainty. More than any other sport, it has been depicted in American art as a symbol of nostalgia and hope.

Taking the Field

Though baseball existed in various forms for centuries, it began its rise as America’s pastime in 1846 with the first officially recorded game in Hoboken, New Jersey. Over the following decades, it evolved from a regional recreation into a national institution. As it grew, artists documented the game and helped shape how it was seen and celebrated.

One of the earliest artistic depictions appears in the 1863 lithograph “Union Prisoners at Salisbury, N.C.” The print was based on a watercolor created by Union officer Otto Boetticher during his imprisonment at Salisbury Prison, a Confederate prison camp in North Carolina.

Print of "Union Prisoners at Salisbury, N.C.," 1863, after a watercolor by Otto Boetticher. Library of Congress. Public Domain

Conditions in prisons like Salisbury were harsh and overcrowded. Playing baseball allowed imprisoned soldiers to maintain familiar routines despite uncertainty and deprivation. Diaries from Union prisoners confirm that baseball games were played regularly when weather permitted, offering a sense of normalcy amid difficult conditions.

The inclusion of baseball in Boetticher’s lithograph suggests that by 1863, the sport was already widely recognizable as a distinctly American pastime. In an environment defined by hardship, the game symbolized continuity, camaraderie, and hope. The lithograph illustrates baseball’s growing place in American life during one of the nation’s most difficult periods.

From Players to Public Figures

In 1869, the first openly all-professional baseball team was formed. Known as the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the team took its name from the bright red, knee-high socks worn by its players. It would eventually evolve into the franchise known today as the Cincinnati Reds.

"First Nine of the Cincinnati (Red Stockings) Base Ball Club," 1869, by by Tuchfarber, Walkley & Moellman. Library of Congress. Public Domain

As professional baseball matured in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, players became celebrities, and the baseball card emerged as a new way to celebrate them. Unlike earlier illustrations focused on teams or the playing field, baseball cards centered on the individual athlete.

Players posed formally in crisp uniforms, becoming instantly identifiable figures to fans. In this way, baseball cards functioned as miniature portraits, encouraging collectors to preserve images of athletes much as they would those of political leaders or cultural figures.

Art Fromme, Cincinnati Reds, baseball card portrait, 1909–1911. Library of Congress. Public Domain

The boom in baseball cards also reflected shifts in American consumer culture. Collectors assembled albums, traded players, and built communities around the hobby. Many pasted cards into scrapbooks, treating them as keepsakes rather than future collectibles. Through these small printed images, players became some of America’s first nationally recognized sports celebrities.

Baseball Enters Commercial Advertising

Print of Star club tobacco label showing a baseball game from the third base, circa 1867. Library of Congress. Public Domain

As baseball imagery spread through cards and print media, it became a powerful tool for advertisers outside the sport. The same visuals that fueled fan culture also worked as commercial symbols, linking products to the popularity of America’s pastime.

The 1867 “Star Club” tobacco label illustrates how quickly baseball entered commercial advertising. Baseball imagery had already appeared in political cartoons before the Civil War, including an 1860 Currier & Ives print depicting Abraham Lincoln playing baseball against his political rivals. By the late 1860s, advertisers understood that the sport was instantly recognizable to the public. Unlike lithographs that recorded history, these commercial images used baseball to suggest youth, leisure, and camaraderie.

Nineteenth-century tobacco manufacturers relied on colorful labels to distinguish their products in a crowded marketplace. Baseball proved especially effective because it evoked wholesome outdoor recreation and leisure.

Beyond the Ballpark

The Professional Game of Baseball, circa 1890, by Parker Brothers. Public Domain

Baseball had become so firmly embedded in American culture that it extended beyond the field and into the home through board games, making it accessible to a wider public. The Professional Game of Baseball, produced at the end of the 19th century, reflects the expanding appeal of both organized baseball and family entertainment. Made from cardboard, paper, wood, and bone, the tabletop game attempted to recreate the sport’s strategy and excitement for indoor play.

At the same time, professional baseball was becoming increasingly segregated. In 1887, the International League, which included teams from New York, New Jersey, and Ontario, banned new contracts for black players. By 1889, owners in the National League and the American Association had reached an unwritten “gentlemen’s agreement” barring the signing of black players. The policy affected the entire system: Teams that attempted to sign black players faced pushback from other owners due to blocked contracts, loss of exhibition opportunities, and financial pressure tied to fan attendance. In practice, these pressures often made contracts unstable and effectively forced players out of the league without any formal rule or punishment.

Despite this exclusion, black baseball thrived. Teams organized through schools, churches, factories, and local communities, touring nationally and drawing strong crowds. Their popularity occasionally led league owners to rent out ballparks, even as they maintained segregation within their own ranks. These independent teams helped lay the groundwork for later institutions, including the Negro Leagues and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

A 1954 photograph of Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers, posed and ready to swing. Library of Congress. Public Domain

Their success made the exclusionary system increasingly difficult to ignore. Jackie Robinson helped begin the integration of Major League Baseball when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in October 1945. He broke the league’s color barrier with his major league debut in April 1947. As World War II had just ended, national attention shifting toward civil rights and military service abroad, baseball’s color barrier began to fall, ending more than 50 years of unofficial segregation.

What Was Once Good

Few sports have shaped the American imagination as deeply as baseball. Before radio, television, and photography, artists and printers played a central role in shaping how the game was seen or understood. Each form served a distinct purpose while reflecting baseball’s place in American culture. They presented baseball as wartime resilience, leisure and advertising, individual achievement in portrait cards, and collective energy in popular illustration. This visual tradition helps explain why “Field of Dreams” continues to resonate.

From Civil War lithographs to early commercial graphics, these images trace how the sport entered American visual life and how its cultural meaning developed alongside the game itself.

What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to [email protected].