Jan 15, 2013
First known photograph of someone giving the finger, 1886 [3 pictures]
In this Major League Baseball team photo of the 1886 Boston Beaneaters, pitcher Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn extends his middle finger for the photograph, immortalizing himself in the trivia books as the first person to be pictured flipping the bird…
Update: Some commenters have suggested that it looks like a cigar. It does, that’s true. However it seems relatively well-documented that it’s him flipping the bird. And, it turns out, this isn’t the only time he did it.
Here’s the story of the two incidents as told by Edward Achorn in his book Fifty-nine in ’84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had…
Charlie dutifully rested his right hand on the shoulder of the teammate sitting in front of him. But at the last minute, wearing a straight face…he lifted his left hand above his teammate’s other shoulder, firmly thrust out his middle finger, and held it rock steady so that it would remain sharp and clear in the captured image….
Charlie was seemingly the first man in history whose use of the obscene gesture was preserved on film. He may well have been the second, too. The following year, posing for his photograph on an Old Judge Tobacco baseball card, Radbourn placed his hands on his hips and, wearing a bland expression, subtly extended the middle finger on his left hand. Click.
Here’s that second pic…
(via Retronaut)
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That looks like a cigar. I call fraud.
I agree…looks like a cigar.
So where’s he hiding his other finger?
Maybe his pinky is behind the front fellow’s neck.
I think it looks like a pipe – that’s an olde timey thing to do, right?
I just tried holding my finger that way, with the flanking fingers way forward and the middle finger way back, and I can’t do it. I guess maybe some people can but it does look odd.
If it’s not his middle finger, then where is his middle finger?
Geez, one Rathergate memo or Iranian propaganda photoshop and everyone’s a forensic expert :P
I just rested my and on my desk, back side down, like he’s doing on that guy’s shoulder, with middle finger extended. Sure enough, my fingers look pretty much exactly like that, with the ring & index knuckles far forward of my middle finger, my pinky less so.
Sometimes a middle finger is just a middle finger!
Look closely. It’s also the first known Aaron Rodgers photobomb.
I love how a discussion about whether or not it’s his middle finger has ensued. Why can’t we take anything for face value anymore!? Everything has to be in question. Sheesh! Can’t we just let it be a middle finger? It’s clear that it’s happened in more than one photo, so why doubt it?
I am nearly always sorry when I comment on this site. Even when I try to engage in what I think is polite, interesting conversation, some meanie or two has to get critical.