Football is a lot more than the game played on the field. Among other things, it is also about the technologies that have allowed fans of different eras to experience and develop a love for football, even when unable to sit in the stands to watch a game. Many of our favorite memories come from games we did not attend, and some of our favorite "pseudo-memories" involve images or films of games that occurred before our time. So it makes sense to review certain technologies that have given us the opportunity to see games we did not see in person.
One of those technologies receives a mention on the postcard or RPPC above, which shows nameless Missouri high school teams in 1908. Unlike the era's many posed images of high school teams, it's a game-action image, though it has nothing special to recommend it other than the note written in the upper right, reading:
Taken after 5 o'clock and no sun, with The Graflex Camera.
Much of what we know about football in days gone by comes from books, magazines, and newspapers. We also learn from viewing the period movies and photographs that became increasingly available as photographic technologies advanced.
The scarcity of photographs of local high school games is difficult to grasp today, especially when grandmothers can watch youth, high school, and small college games played a time zone or two away via a simple computer click. New photographic techniques and cameras in 1908 gave folks of that era more access to images than previously available, so it seemed appropriate to figure out what was special about Graflex cameras and why someone might mention it on the front of a 1908 postcard.
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