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 Chris Whitehouse Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to see photos in full size and to start Photo Gallery:

The Beautiful Work of Chris Whitehouse

Those of us who frequent baseball history web sites know that there are a few very talented baseball artists out there, including our own Don Stokes, whose beautiful colorizations we’ve featured many times. Other talented artists include Graig Kreindler, and Chris Whitehouse.

I recently asked Chris Whitehouse if he’d be interested in allowing me to do a spread of his best work here on Baseball History Comes Alive. He readily agreed and sent me some of his favorites. Today, with his permission, I’ve put the piece together. His website is  Man Cave Pictures, which I encourage you to visit and get a good look at all of Chris’s work. Many of his beautiful restorations are available for sale.

Chris and I are from the same stoppin’ grounds, the Chicago area. Those of you familiar with Illinois will recognize the towns he’s lived in:  Elgin, Carpentersville, and Dundee. He attended Northern Illinois University, and shortly after found himself in Hong Kong. He now resides in Ayutthaya. Thailand. (No, I’ve never heard of it either!). I asked Chris to provide a little background information on how he got involved with the baseball photo restoration business, and I’ll let him take it from here.  

“I got started with photo restoration way back around 1980, well before Photoshop. My brother, the family historian, has a huge collection of photos that he worked on and tried to fix up using a needle and India ink. I learned from this and spent a lot of time in the University (Northern Illinois) darkroom learning patience and how to bring the best out of photos.

Fast forward to when I was making video games in Hong Kong, I was thrown into Photoshop and had to learn quickly while designing game interfaces. I then had the ability to start in on family photos using Photoshop, which gives you superpowers compared to what we had before. Originally, I just restored the black and white and never tried coloring until convinced by a colorizing friend. Then when I discovered the incredible baseball archives at the Library of Congress, well, that was it. Baseball is far too colorful of a subject not to show how things really looked back then.”

I put all the photos Chris sent me in the photo gallery above. Then I featured each one individually in a small thumbnail with Chris’s running commentary. I think you’ll enjoy reading what Chris has to say about each one.

Take particular note of the 1903 World Series restoration. Chris had informed me in the past that his grandfather is actually visible in the stands. If you click on the photo in the gallery, you’ll see a red arrow indicating his grandfather. 

By the way, here on our Baseball History Comes Alive website, we now have as readers of the site two descendants of the 1903 World Series: starting pitcher, Deacon Phillippe (our reader is actor Dean Phillippi, Sr.); and the starting catcher, Eddie Phelps (our reader is Jim Phelps); and now we can add that one of the spectators in the stands is the grandfather of baseball artist, Chris Whitehouse. Whoever would have thought it!

To start out, here’s Chris’s commenting on some of his favorites:

Babe Ruth with “Shoeless” Joe Jackson (and mobster Arnold Rothstein).

This is probably my most popular image, because of the subject matter. This was Babe’s first year with the Yankees and Joe’s last year in Pro Ball. It isn’t likely that they were really discussing anything. This kind of photo with stars from opposing teams examining bats was a very common set up.

 

 

Here I am with White Sox manager Rick Renteria, who loved his present and could name all of the old-time players on display. (as could White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf). If the Field of Dreams game goes ahead this year, I’ll try to get the White Sox to present a nice big print of this to the Yankees.

 

 

1901 White Stockings. This is one of the pictures that we sent to the White Sox a few years ago. They called back the next day and we’ve been working with them ever since.

 

 

 

 

Ebbets Field in its first year. I’m trying to cover all of the old parks.. This one really stands out.

 

 

 

 

Jackie at door. This was noticed and picked up by the editor of the Hall of Fame magazine for their cover. I’m presently working on a new project for their April issue.

 

 

 

 

 

1917 White Sox [was done in five individual pieces]. As you can see, this was a pretty difficult job of restoration, but it absolutely needed to be done. I think it turned out well.

 

 

 

Lou Gehrig hitting in Cleveland [featured photo]. This has to be my favorite photo of Lou.

 

 

 

 

 

1943 Negro Leagues Champions Homestead Grays at Griffith Stadium in DC. We bid on the original photo at auction, because of course, it was such a great photo that we had to get it. We lost, but also won, since the winner was the Negro Leagues Museum in KC and they sent us a great scan to work on. It took a lot of research to get those advertisements right, but they really help make the picture. The finished work was presented to the NLBM during the World Series in DC.

 

1903 First modern World Series with the Boston Americans and the Pirates. This is special to me because in 1903 my Grandfather was in his Senior year at the New England Conservatory of Music, just beyond the wall of the Huntington Avenue Grounds. And there he is in the stands for this picture (marked with a red star).

 

Smiling Ty. It is a persistent falsity that you never see pictures of Ty Cobb with a smile. Let this one drive it home.

 

 

 

 

 

“Little Ray” Kelly at the Grand Opening of Yankee Stadium. I had the pleasure of surprising Ray Kelly’s son and family with a big print of this photo.

 

 

 

Flying Agganis. This is a baseball page, but I can show that I do football as well with this picture of Harry Agganis flying at Fenway Park. Harry, a gridiron star at Boston University, briefly starred for the Red Sox before dying so tragically young.

 

 

The Planting of the Ivy at Wrigley field. In 1937 the Cubs built a brand new outfield wall and bleachers. The iconic ivy, an idea of Bill Veeck’s, ensured that the Cubs were never required to pad their walls as all other teams were.

 

After viewing this selection of Chris’ work, I think we can all agree that he’s a talented artist, and his work has greatly enhanced our appreciation of baseball history. Be sure to visit Chris’ various websites:

www.mancavepictures.com

www.mancavepictures.com/store

www.facebook.com/mancavepictures/

twitter.com/mancavephotos

Gary Livacari 

Check out my latest book, recently nominated for the SABR 2020 Lawrence Ritter Award: “Reflections on the 1919 Black Sox: Time to take Another Look,” now available on Amazon in e-book and paperback. All profits go to the Illinois Veterans Foundation: https://amzn.to/2uk6KBU