After the Civil War, as baseball became The National Pastime, some of the early ballplayers had their likenesses preserved by painters and others by engravers.  By the latter part of the 19th Century, however, the burgeoning field of photography then became the primary method for showing fans what their baseball heroes looked like. Player images were placed onto tobacco pack inserts or as stylized indoor photos known as 'Cabinets'.

In the first half of the 20th Century, when baseball's popularity truly exploded, baseball images were relayed to the public primarily by a different medium; newspapers & sports magazines. Also, a new feature began to appear in those publications, the sports cartoon. 

Sports cartoons and related illustrations continued to dominate that niche until the 1950's, when baseball card companies used advances in commercial photography to again achieve primacy in baseball imagery.  Sadly, by the end of the 20th Century, sports cartooning and other original baseball artwork (though not baseball cards) were mostly relegated to the dustbin of history.

Fortunately for art lovers & baseball fans, artistic involvement with baseball has made a major resurgence in the 21st Century. Young artists & cartoonists have discovered that the baseball world is full of possibility for artistic exploration. In addition, digital artists have emerged to give a new twist to the world of sports art.

This collection explores the many forms of art which have memorialized the images of Jews in baseball. It is a topic not previously addressed, but one which is replete with Jewish content as well as American artistic, historic and cultural significance.