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Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(SPORTS--BASEBALL.) Cabinet card of Dan Penno, a pre-Negro League player from the famed Cuban Giants. Silver print, 5 1/4 x 3 3/4 inches, on photographer's mount of "The Gem," 495 6th Avenue, New York; minimal wear, mount remnants on verso; contemporary inscription on verso "From Daniel E. Penno, August 21th 1901." New York, 1901
Dan Penno was one of only two Black players who did long stints in Rhode Island's integrated semi-professional baseball teams in the nineteenth century, playing with various local teams from 1883 to 1890, before joining the well-known Cuban Giants of New York from 1893 to 1898, and continuing with New York-area teams through at least 1906. This portrait was taken toward the end of his playing career, when he was about 40 years old. We don't see many portraits of pre-Negro League players, in or out of uniform.
You will not find much information on Daniel Eugene Penno in any standard reference sources, but one of the world's leading experts is by a fortunate coincidence employed at Swann Galleries. Penno was born in East Greenwich, RI circa 1861, the son of an illiterate Cape Verdean mariner named John Penno and a local mulatto named Hannah Perry. The Cape Verdeans, descended from a mix of Portuguese settlers and enslaved Africans on a small island hundreds of miles off the coast of Africa, had a long tradition of settlement in Rhode Island. Dan married young in 1879 to Ella Maria Proffit, a member of one of Rhode Island's most notable Black families. One modern source states that he attended Howard University, although he is not listed in Howard's annual catalogs from 1878 to 1883. His earliest documented baseball appearance was in 1883 as a catcher for the Yellow Docks, an integrated team from the mill village of Pontiac, RI. He pitched for the 1885 Acmes in Providence, and went on to play with the white East Greenwich Alerts as well as the Providence Colored Grays in 1886. His older brother Louis was his catcher with the Colored Grays. He joined the all-Black Boston Resolutes in 1887 as an infielder, was back with the Providence Colored Grays in 1888, and was playing with a white semi-pro team in the village of Pascoag, RI in 1889. In 1890, he was playing for the Clydes of Pawtuxet Valley in the Rhode Island State League, covering center field, shortstop, and third base. Integrated teams were rare in Rhode Island in the late 1800s, but not unheard of; star pitcher William Whyte was another noteworthy Black player in the same circuit during this period.
In 1892, Penno was listed as a laborer in the industrial village of River Point, RI, but the next year, he was the starting center fielder for the 1893 Cuban Giants, alongside great pre-Negro League stars such as Hall of Famers Frank Grant and Sol White. The team went 99-12 that year, and played regular Sunday games at Leo Park in Queens County. On 31 August 1896, Penno and some of his teammates were arrested for playing Sunday baseball in Long Island City, NY--a common occupational hazard for ballplayers of all races in that era. He was with the Cuban Giants as late as 1898. In later years, he was spotted with the "Genuine Cuban Giants" in 1901, the Jersey Cubans in 1902, and with the New York Colored Giants from 1904 to at least 1906. He was never a star, but was good enough to play at least semi-professionally for more than twenty years, including some stints with very good teams. He remained in Manhattan after his playing career. In the 1920 census, he was living on 131st Street and working as a porter in Grand Central Station. He died in Manhattan on 25 July 1924.
