A massive close cropped image of an early career Christy Mathewson by the Paul Thompson agency. We know it is 1902-1904 based upon the uniform Matty is wearing. It is possibly 1902 based on the fact his teammate behind him is wearing a white cap which was used during that season, but not during the 1903-1904 seasons.

Photos of this size during the Deadball Era are incredibly rare. While this copy does not note a photographer, another copy of this photo bears a Paul Thompson stamp. In fact Thompson himself wrote and article in a 1908 newspaper and included the photo, with the exact slug on back with the same language he used in the article. These are shown in the images below.