1915 Babe Ruth Red Sox Portrait Part of Rare Negative Collection

A collection of 11 original glass plate negatives taken at Fenway Park in 1915, including two of a young Babe Ruth are coming up for sale.

Legendary Auctions will feature the negatives—and modern era prints of the black and white photos—in an event set to open Monday.

Discovered in an attic in 1988 still tucked inside their original envelopes, the negatives are in exceptional condition.  There are two of Ruth, a portrait shot and one picturing the 20-year-old star warming up and one of a smiling Ty Cobb.  Others include portraits featuring Tris Speaker and Harry Hooper.

The 4×5” negatives came from the prestigious Underwood and Underwood Studios, a pioneer in early news photography.  According to the auction house, they appear to have been taken on the same day, within moments of each other as Cobb and the Tigers visited the Red Sox.

Those were heady days in Boston, with the young dual threat Ruth helping the Sox to the second of back-to-back World Series titles in the team’s newly built ballpark. Ruth, at just 20 years old, was 18-8 with a 2.44 ERA.

Collectors may recall the Ruth photo on display at the 2005 National Sports Collectors Convention in honor of the Red Sox 2004 championship season.  They’ve also been on display at the Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

The auction also includes a 1910 T210 Old Mill Joe Jackson graded SGC 30, a collection of 1903 E107 Breisch Williams cards including Christy Mathewson (SGC 20), Jim Palmer’s 1976 AL Cy Young Award and Bob Gibson’s 1968 NL MVP Award.

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About Rich Mueller

Rich is the editor and founder of Sports Collectors Daily. A broadcaster and writer for over 40 years and a collector for even longer than that, he's usually typing something somewhere. Type him back at [email protected].