Dubbed the "Father of News Photography," George Grantham Bain ranks among Charles Conlon, Carl Horner and Paul Thompson as one of baseball's pioneering master photographers. He founded the seminal Bain News Service in New York City in 1898, offering worldwide photographic coverage of arts, entertainment, politics, disasters, crime, sports and more. Indeed, Bain's towering influence and legacy were such that today his main archive is prestigiously housed in the Library of Congress!

The rare archive on offer here in our auction is extremely unique in that each original photo is a four-in-one portrait composite with oversized 11x14 dimensions and an intact newspaper-supplement caption. What's more, nearly every image boasts the stellar, crystal-clear image quality that indicates production direct from Bain's 4x5 glass negatives—hence, Type I photo status. We've never seen anything else quite like it. In terms of preservation, the century-old photo quartets exhibit their typical vintage usage/handling wear throughout, as well as filing holes from a ring binder. Likewise for the large, boldly printed paper captions.

Subjects: 1) Joe Tinker/Otto Knabe/Mike Doolan/Dick Hoblitzel; and 2) Bob Sweeney/Bert Humphries/Claud Derrick/Zip Zabel.

Notes: The Tinker photo quartet retains its caption mentioning Cincinnati trade rumors prior to Tinker joining the Federal League. The non-Tinker photo quartet is missing its caption and has heavy right-side wear.