Historically significant mounted photographs of Bennet Park in Detroit depicting Opening Day, April 25, 1901. This was the Detroit Tigers first game and was one of the first games in the inaugural year of the American League. Our full photo on its large mount is shown below.

Here is a known image of Opening Day, published on the front page of The Detroit Free Press on April 26, 1901.

Here is a sister image from the collection, on the same type mount and size that shows the teams lined up at home plate for the Opening Day ceremony on April 25, 1901. Note the spilling onto the field.

Note that the flags and grandstand are the same in both mounted images and in the newspaper photo. Note the open end of the grandstand roof at right. The grandstand was not finished yet on Opening Day. It was completed, and the roof finished out later in 1901.

There are several fascinating details of our image to note. First take a look at the flags, they match the opening day photo.

Next note the bunting tucked under the roof in the eaves. These are only easily visible from the close in field angle and indicate it was likely the celebratory Opening Day.

The sister photograph of the ceremony at home plate shows some of the bunting barely visible under the eaves at the poles.

Now look at the construction materials, such as ladders and plywood in the open unfinished bay as compared to the finished, backed and fully occupied bay to the left. This is consistent with the unfinished state of the stadium on Opening Day.

Next look at the players that are blurry. This is consistent with the cameras in use in 1901 when most photographers were not carrying cameras equipped to capture action shots. That advancement, which was only just then being developed by photographic pioneers, was not in widespread use then.

And finally, look at the uniform of the relatively stationary and slightly blurry player standing near third base. His uniform matches with the Dressed to the Nines database for the 1901 Detroit TIgers.

Add it all up and it is very likely this image was from the Detroit Tigers Opening Day game in their inaugural season of 1901, and at the very least an image from within that year.