A cabinet card of the 1888 Davenport baseball club from the Interstate League was auctioned by Robert Edwards Auctions in the spring of 2015. According to the listing, the card originated in the collection of Charles Mears, a sports columnist for the Cleveland News, who presumably obtained it from the collection of William Rankin, a sportswriter for the New York Clipper in the 1880s. None of the players pictured are in uniform. This can be explained based on a blurb in the Muscatine (Iowa) Journal, on March 26, 1888. "The JOURNAL is indebted to Moore & Hood, of Davenport, for... a cabinet photograph containing miniature faces of the twelve players composing Davenport's team, and a 'large head and shoulder' of Manager Lucas." The players didn't report until April, so no uniforms in these photos.The players identified on the card include major leaguers Charlie Reising, Charlie Briggs, Willard Mains, Harry Jacoby, and Trick McSorley. The pictures of Reising and Briggs are the first known photos of these two players. The remaining players were Will Crossley, Charles Hollacher, Frank Small, John McCabe, Ira Phillips, Owen Williams, and Linc Manlove.
In the summer of 2019, a second composite of the 1888 Davenport club was auctioned by the same company, depicting unidentified players in a Davenport uniform, with manager Will Lucas prominently identified in the center. As some of the players don't match the players in the first composite, it was assumed that this was a composite of the players from the club in the Western Association, made late in the season. However, an auction from spring 2006 included a cabinet card for Owen Williams, with the same photo as used in the second composite, suggesting that this card includes players from the Interstate League Davenport club.
There are two distinct time frames for the composite. One of the players in the first (no uniform) composite was Frank Small. He did not report to the club until July 1. (He was in school in the srping.) The remaining eleven players were in camp, plus pitcher E.E. Crumb, reported in early April. Crumb was released in late April, replaced by Ed Morkin, who reported on April 24, 1888, right before the season started. Morkin and the other eleven remained with the club through the end of June.
In early July, wholesale changes were made. Jacoby, Manlove, McSorley and Morkin were released, and Hollacher took an extended leave. George Scherer was signed as a reserve on June 29, and Charles "Hickety" Hoffman started on July 1. Frank Small arrived on July 3. Ed Mayer and Jerry Harrington were both signed on July 6. That same day, the Quad City Times reported that new uniforms would be purchased for the club. It could be that the photos were taken after the arrival of all the new players and the new uniforms. The timing would be tight, because it is not clear how long after July 3 that Scherer was with the club.
An article in the Quad City Times (Davenport, Iowa) on June 18, 1888 notes that photographs of the Davenport Base Ball team are for sale at the Hasting Gallery. Assuming these are the same photos as used in the second composite, that would put the timing of the second composite as prior to mid-June.
There are seven players who would be included no matter when the photos were taken. Mains, Williams, McCabe, Phillips, Briggs, Crossley and Reising were with the club the entire season, until it disbanded in early August.