This charming folk art watercolor depicts Camp Reynolds on Angel Island. The work is mounted to a Reynold's Bristol board board and on the mount On the mount, there is a manuscript caption which reads “Post of Angel Island,” which was the name of the fort from 1866-1900. The work shows the fort’s barracks, an American flag waving in the breeze and, most intriguingly, a man and woman engaged in a game of tennis.

Lawn tennis was popular with soldiers and their families stationed at forts such as Angel island. The game was played on Angel Island as early as the 1870s, shortly after the game’s modern inception. Tennis historian Randy Crow has suggested Angel Island was the first place the game was played in the state of California and he has hypothesized the island’s court predates the one constructed on Staten Island in 1874 (generally thought of to be the first in the nation).

An appealing and early folk art depiction of the sport.