Note: This is an update to a previously posted article. I am still having difficulty finding the identity of both the players and their team. The initials on the football and the one kid's sweater read "C.M." Searching Philadelphia's schools and football teams seemed the logical way to identify the photo's subjects, especially considering the photograph was taken in Philadelphia. No luck. I found pictures of old Jersey's to try to find the elusive C.M. No go. 

      Perhaps they were a subsidiary of a school, for instance, the University of Pennsylvania's Medical College? Uh-uh. I read a dissertation. No, I am not kidding. While doing the individual searches I came across a dissertation written by W. Curtis Miner in 1989. In Level Playing Fields: The Democratization of Amateur Sport in Pennsylvania, Miner provides a well-rounded, early history of football.  I highly recommend it as a read but, there was no mention of C.M. 

      A brainstorm finally hit, "what if it weren't a Philadelphia team but a visiting school who sat for the Bacon Studio?" Was it possible that a visiting team might take time out for a picture? Although the idea sounds great in theory, I have searched every possibility in and around Pennsylvania and cannot find C.M.

      I then moved to the names penciled on the back of the photograph. Unfortunately, only last names are listed. Whoever made the record also recorded player positions. Of the names I was able to decipher (see photo) I tried to pair them with football and or c.m. in the searches and....I still have no clue as to their identity. I also put the names into the search engine as a team, but to no avail. Name and position...nothing. Nada. Zilch. It is time to share everything I have with the readers, and maybe one of you can shed some light on this elusive group. 

      As far as the names on the reverse, see the photo to the right. The first name is Moore. then perhaps Neely (Meiby?), Barrok, Mearing (Nearing), Davis, Weily (?), 5 illegible names, Harper, Muller, and McCarty or McCurry (possibility). Seeing the piece up close does not provide a better view of the names considering the damage, but I will keep trying.  

      The photograph is from the studio of Gilbert and Bacon, 1030 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. William Frank Bacon (1846-1900) was a second generation photographer who first began learning the craft during the American Civil War. C.M. Gilbert retired from the company in 1886, leaving it in Bacon's capable hands. Bacon developed Bright's disease in the 1890's and gradually turned the studio over to his son, Frank Bacon. For more about the Gilbert and Bacon Studio, check out Broadway Photographs.   Pat 10 August 2015, Dover. DE. 

Author Pat Earnest, currently lives in Dover, Delaware, with family, both two- and four-footed. I am a published author and history enthusiast, who has great regard for the past and is especially proud of the Pennsylvania German culture. In addition to Passed Time, I am currently working on a project for the German Historical Institutes Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies (http://www.ghi-dc.org). I also contribute to various newsletters and I am working on another book...or two. Feel free to email me at pcsuter@hotmail.com for questions, comments, information, a shared love of history, an idea, or just because you want to chat or have an idea for PT. Please be aware, Files With Attachments will not be opened, but immediately deleted.