Fifteen football team members pose in three rows on a grassy field, with a boy holding a small dog at the far right. Their clothing includes ribbed sweaters, lace-front protective vests, padded trousers and leather headgear. The central seated player holds a football in his lap; a long fence crosses the distant background.
White hand-lettering within the photograph reads “Madrid F. B. Team.” and, beneath it, “1907.” A later pencil annotation on the reverse identifies the town as “MADRID, NEB,” supporting the identification as Madrid, Nebraska. Neither the players nor the particular field is named.
The photograph is on divided-back postcard stock with a KRUXO stamp box. It is unmailed, with no stamp, cancellation, address or correspondence. KRUXO is the photographic-paper brand, not a credit to the photographer or publisher; neither is identified on the card.
- Title on card
- Madrid F. B. Team. / 1907. (inscribed)
- Medium
- RPPC
- Subject
- Children, Nebraska, Outdoor Scene, Sports and Games
- Dimensions
- 5.51 × 3.5 in (139.9 × 88.9 mm)
- Condition
- Generally clean and sound, with a few small dark marks in the right-hand background, clear of the figures. No visible tears or substantial losses. Pencil annotations on the reverse.
- Provenance
- Real photo postcard on KRUXO paper; the “One Cent / Stamp / Here / KRUXO” stamp box dates the printing to roughly c. 1907–1920s, consistent with the 1907 caption date in the negative. The reverse pencil markings — circled “NDH”, the code “HAEF-DFCO-AP[?]2”, “Pop 263 (1996) MADRID, NEB” and “* NOTE DOG FAR RIGHT” — are later dealer or collector annotations; they are recorded for the record but are not treated as evidence of place or date. The state identification (Nebraska) rests on the verso annotation matching the caption town name, corroborated by Madrid’s entry in the Nebraska Educational Directory for 1907–1908.
- Catalogue no.
- MRPPC3446
Catalogue details
Location
Madrid, Nebraska · Madrid, Nebraska, United States
Photographed subject · Locality (town) · 85% confidence
The supplied front caption, “Madrid F. B. Team. / 1907.”, identifies the depicted team by town; the reverse annotation “MADRID, NEB” supplies the state. Together these support Madrid, Nebraska, at town—not field or street—precision. Independent historical corroboration includes Madrid’s entry in the Nebraska Educational Directory for 1907–1908; the village’s official history places Madrid in Perkins County and dates its formal dedication to 1887. These sources corroborate the locality, not this particular photograph. ([govdocs.nebraska.gov](https://govdocs.nebraska.gov/epubs/E2200/D001-190708.pdf?utm_source=openai)) Searches for the exact caption and the 1907 football subject, including photograph-collection and historical-map searches, did not locate an independently catalogued duplicate or identify the field. Consequently, the identification rests principally on the supplied caption and verso reading; neither a specific playing ground nor the camera’s exact location is established..
