The Illustrated Papers · 1870s–1880s
The First Game
The illustrated papers’ engravings of the 1870s and 80s — the early internationals and cup ties rendered as Victorian news. Before the photograph could catch a match, the engravers did.
The pieces in The First Game
the illustrated papers · 1870s
An International Football Match
The new game as Victorian news — top hats on the touchline, the scrimmage in wood engraving.
Every institution was once a novelty item.
period photograph · 1888–89
The Invincibles, 1888–89
Preston North End, the first champions of the first league season — unbeaten, and photographed like it.
Some seasons never need replacing.
period photograph · 1896–97
The Double Winners, 1896–97
League and Cup in one season — the Victorian double, photographed at full plumage.
Sixty-four years passed before it was done again.
Vanity Fair · 1912
Lord Kinnaird, by Vanity Fair
Nine Cup finals, five winner’s medals, one red beard — the great amateur, in chromolithograph.
The first celebrity of the game tackled like a landslide.