1872 Mansfield, Middletown CT

This rendering is based on partial written documentation for uniform style and color. Unconfirmed visual documentation, possibly from a related year, is used to help create the rendering.

Rendering accuracy:Year: unconfirmed    Team: documented

Visual documentation on this uniform:

Photo A

Dated circa 1872. Full view, top, and detail view, above, of a parade scene that included at least eight baseball players in uniform stopping to pose on Main Street in Middletown, CT, in front of the McDonough House. Historian John Thorn has written that this is “the only known image of the Middletown Mansfields of the 1872 National Association.” Players wore a white uniform in this photo, highlighted by a shield bib with large dark buttons and an old-English M in the center. The uniform included a white cap, light-colored belts and light-colored stockings. The shirt had a pocket on the left breast with dark trim along the top edge. A close study of the photo may suggest that the shirts were not white, but possibly of a light color. The clean appearance of the white pants may suggest the uniforms were new. It is possible one player standing at far right wore a different style of shirt and bib. Newspapers from 1872 described the stocking color for Mansfield as blue; one report may have inferred that the stocking color was light blue.

Researcher David Arcidiacono has suggested that this photo may be from 1872 or 1873. Mansfield played a game in Middletown on July 4, 1872, against Boston, and it is possible this photo was from that day. In his book, Major League Baseball in Gilded Age Connecticut (2009), Arcidiacono noted that the 4th of July celebrations in Middletown began with a “military and dress parade” and that “after the parade, 3,000 people made the walk out to Mansfield Park for the ballgame.” However Arcidiacono also notes that “the piece of paper on the reverse of the photo [as described by the auction house] mentioned the trip by the Middletown Fire Dept. and the Mansfield [team] to Bristol, RI, for their firemen’s parade, which occurred in 1870. This is confusing since the photo was obviously taken on Main Street in Middletown. I think [the mention of] Bristol may have some relationship to the photo.” Arcidiacono adds that in 1873 “the Bristol Fire Dept. and baseball team took to Middletown to participate in Middletown’s firemen parade” and that “the Middletown Press said the Middletown baseball team that played Bristol that day was a ‘picked nine’ composed of several 1872 Mansfield players.” The 1872 game date against Boston from retrosheet.org. The circa 1872 date for the image and the image scan from James D. Julia Auctioneers, who described the image as “a mammoth sized glass-plate negative” and added this information about the image: “The backdrop is a large hotel with balcony which has several onlookers. The storefronts below include D.C. Tyler, Druggist and a book seller, a framer (E. Rockwell), a large barber pole is seen amongst other buildings. […] An old piece of paper is attached to reverse and reads as follows, ‘A trip to Bristol R. I. on the steamer Geo. A. Chaffee built in Middletown Conn. Hubbard Hose Co. No. 2. Mansfield Base Ball Team and the Forest City Band to take part in a Fireman’s parade. Capt. Christopher Carroll in command. Henry Sullivan Steward. About the year 1872.'”

Photo B

Two view of the McDonough House Hotel on Main Street in Middletown, CT. At left is a detail view of the building from the parade scene, see photo A. At right is the same building, remarkably taken from the same camera angle. The image at right, labelled as “McDonough House, Middletown, Connecticut,” is a detail view of a stereoscopic cabinet card that was originally part of the Robert N. Dennis Collection and now in the possession of the New York Public Library. These two images confirm that the parade photo was taken in Middletown. The similarity of the images also suggests that both were taken within a few years of each other. Image scan from commons.wikimedia.org, retrieved August 12, 2020.

Written documentation on this uniform:
May 24, 1872, Mansfield, Middletown, v. Baltimore, at Baltimore: “The uniform of the [Mansfield] club is entirely white except the stockings, which are blue.” From the Baltimore Sun, May 25, 1872. Research from Ed Morton. Game date from retrosheet.org.

May 29, 1872, Mansfield, Middletown, v. Athletic, Philadelphia, at Philadelphia: “[The Mansfield] uniform is similar to that of the Athletic Club, and when the two nines were mixed in the field it was very hard to pick out the different men.” From the Philadelphia Dispatch, June 2, 1872. Research from David Arcidiacono. The traditional stocking color for Athletic was light blue, and based on this report it could be suggested the Mansfield team also wore light blue stockings. Game date from retrosheet.org.

Team genealogy: Mansfield, Middeltown CT, 1866-1872
Mansfield was formed in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1866 and was named in honor of Gen. Joseph Mansfield (1803-1862), a Connecticut native killed during the Civil War. After remaining an amateur team through 1871, the Mansfield club joined the National Association (NA) in 1872. The NA was baseball’s first professional league, operating 1871-1875. Mansfield folded later in the 1872 season. Information from David Arcidiacono, Peter Morris and others, Base Ball Pioneers, 1850-1870 (2012), and from wikipedia.