Tom Clark, Sam Rayburn and Alben Barkley at the Senate baseball luncheon, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. — Lynn Skeels

Two rounded-top photographs show a banquet table crowded with flowers, glassware, cups, plates, and cutlery. At the left, a man in a patterned bow tie stands with a cigar in his mouth; seated guests face the camera beside him. Palm fronds, paneled walls, and a two-light wall fixture furnish the room.

An ink inscription on the reverse identifies the standing man as Attorney General Tom Clark, the adjacent sitter as House Speaker Sam Rayburn, and the next as Alben Barkley. The inscription calls Barkley Vice President, a later description: at the time of these outings he was Senate Majority Leader, becoming Vice President only in 1949. The venue is the club's luncheon at the Capitol before the game; the small card photographed near the lower edge of each image cannot be read.

Above the ink identification is the faint but legible pencil name “LOWELL MASON,” the name of the outing's host, whose “Stereographic Library” this set was. A separate pencil “9” appears at upper left. The two-line stamp “ED. BURCHARD / COLLECTION” records collection provenance, not photographic authorship. The photographs are by Lynn Skeels.

The card belongs to Lowell Mason's Stereographic Library, “Annual Baseball Outing,” Vols. I and II — Lynn Skeels's privately distributed stereographs of the Baseball, Clam and Chowder Club of the United States Senate, whose members (Harry Truman among them) lunched at the Capitol and then went to the Washington Senators game at Griffith Stadium. The pencil numeral on the reverse is the view's number within that set; the Library of Congress records the same practice (its copy of view #19 has “#19” written before the title). Matching views are held by the Truman Library (accessions 70-4245 to 70-4256) and the Library of Congress.