George van Haltren was one of the first great baseball players to come out of the San Francisco Bay Area. He began his baseball career in the 1880s as a pitcher, but later became a centerfielder with an impressive batting record. Van Haltren started out playing for the Chicago Cubs and finished his career with the New York Giants, playing for several more teams in between. Aperture is pleased to present William van der Weyde's portrait of him, a rare and historical photograph made by one of the most prolific magazine photographers of the time.

William van der Weyde (1871–1929) began his photojournalistic career with the onset of the Spanish American War in 1898, going on to complete fifteen years of magazine work. His photographs were published in numerous magazines with considerable readerships, such as Success, McClure's, Literary Digest, and the Reader. His archives, which are held at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, include over 1,500 images made from 6-by-9-inch glass negatives spanning a wide range of subject matter—from portraits of American writers, poets, and academics to American battleships and sports figures.