The A. G. Spalding Baseball Collection

Abstract

The personal collection of materials related to baseball and other sports gathered by the early baseball player and sporting-goods tycoon A. G. Spalding came to the Library in 1921 as a gift from his widow. During his lifetime, Spalding acquired the libraries of early Cincinnati Red Stockings center fielder Harry Wright and the early baseball journalist and inventor of the box score Henry Chadwick, two other notable figures in the history of baseball, and incorporated their materials with his own. The entire collection consists of more than 3,000 books and pamphlets; over 100 periodicals; numerous scrapbooks, scorebooks, and diaries; and other manuscript items that document the development of the sport from the mid-19th century to about 1914. The Spalding Collection's visual materials consist mostly of photographs, primarily 19th-century studio portraits of players and teams of the day, plus Spalding himself and his associates, as well as several outdoor and action shots.The collection also includes rare images of "Town Ball" and "Old Cat," two types of stick and ball games that were Americanized variants of the English game of "Rounders," and are considered to be earlier versions of the game that eventually evolved into baseball. The visual materials also include original drawings and photostatic reproductions of cartoons by Homer D. Davenport, and a group of drawings entitled "Spalding's America's national game."

Dates / Origin

Date created: 1860

Place: New York

Library locations

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection

MFY 01-9000

MFY+++ 01-9000 (Spalding, A.G. Spalding baseball collection)