1947 Jackie Robinson Original News Photograph, PSA/DNA Type 1--Image Utilized to Create 1948 Leaf Rookie Card!...

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One of the most important Robinson images ever captured...

1947 Jackie Robinson Original News Photograph, PSA/DNA Type 1--Image Utilized to Create 1948 Leaf Rookie Card! It is the ultimate statement of the obvious to proclaim that any Jackie Robinson relic dating to his heroic, barrier-busting rookie season of 1947 carries profound historical significance and collecting appeal. The delivery of Rookie of the Year brilliance beneath a hailstorm of racial epithets and death threats stands as one of the foremost achievements in American sports, but clearly Robinson's influence extended far beyond the painted lines of the baseball diamond. Shortly before his assassination in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was quoted to say, "Jackie Robinson made my success possible. Without him, I would never have been able to do what I did."

The paper caption that remains affixed to the verso of this marvelous portrait photograph references the struggles Robinson faced on his epic quest for racial justice, reading, "Reported talk of a strike against Jackie Robinson, negro player of the Brooklyn Dodgers, by the St. Louis Cardinals players, was denied today by Manager Eddie Dyer of the Cards. He said that if Brooklyn 'thinks he can be of value to the club that certainly is all right with us." Perhaps coincidence, or perhaps not, it was Branch Rickey who provided Dyer entry to the Majors in 1922, signing him to the pitching staff of the Cardinals during his service as general manager of St. Louis.

But most collectors will argue that the offered photograph earned its status as one of the premier images of Jackie Robinson a year after its origination when it was selected as the image to be used for the future Hall of Famer's entry in the 1948 Leaf Baseball trading card set. Dating all the way back to Carl Horner's studio work during the Dead Ball Era that populates the T206 and many other contemporary issues, photographs immortalized in trading card format carry elite standing amongst advanced collectors, and a rookie photo used for the rookie card of the sport's most significant cultural figure is just about as good as it gets within that field. It also bears mentioning that the 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson might be the hottest vintage card in the hobby right now--Heritage drew a winning bid of $174,000 for a PSA NM-MT 8 example in our September 2020 "Partnerone Collection" catalog auction.

The "Acme Newspictures" photo exhibits the standard handling wear consistent with editorial photos of the era but no faults of significant distraction, and is printed to 7x5" dimensions. Along with the aforementioned paper caption, verso bears a news clipping of the image in use and various editorial markings along with a "May 12, 1947" date stamp. LOA from PSA/DNA, Type 1.