Hampton, Virginia: Cheyne's Studio, 1914.
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Unbound. Gelatin silver portrait photograph of the 1914 Hampton Normal football team, winners of the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association depicting African-American and Native American football players. Image measuring 9½" x 6" on embossed mount measuring 14" x 10" with Cheyne's Studio blindstamp on the lower mount. The mount has light toning and moderate wear at the corners and a short, mended crease at lower right corner; the image is about fine with nice contrast and detail.
The Hampton Normal Agricultural Institute football team won the 1914 Colored Intercollegiate Athletics Association (CIAA) league championship with a record of 2-1-0, while opponents Howard University and Lincoln University finished with records of 1-2-0. The team consisted entirely of African-American and Native American players. The portrait depicts 17 members of the team, all but one in uniform, one holding a football with "1914" in white paint (curiously the image includes a tiny teddy bear, perhaps a team mascot placed on the floor). This photograph was published in the African-American journal *The Crisis* (Vol. 9, No. 4, February 1915, p.193) which included an article on African-American football. The photographer Christopher Cheyne was a white man married to a Hampton school teacher.
Item #502406
