Sports & Leisure - Overview
The nation's passion for sports is obvious every day—at NASCAR races, kiddie soccer matches, and countless other contests. From a handball used by Abraham Lincoln to Chris Evert's tennis racket to a baseball signed by Jackie Robinson, the roughly 6.000 objects in the Museum's sports collections bear witness to the vital place of sports in the nation's history. Paper sports objects in the collections, such as souvenir programs and baseball cards, number in the hundreds of thousands.
Leisure collections encompass a different range of objects, including camping vehicles and gear, video games, playing cards, sportswear, exercise equipment, and Currier and Ives prints of fishing, hunting, and horseracing. Some 4,000 toys dating from the colonial period to the present are a special strength of the collections.
"Sports & Leisure - Overview" showing 1 items.
Royal Special Yo-Yo
- Description (Brief)
- This wooden yo-yo was made by Royal Chico Toys in the 1950s. There is a red and yellow graphic of a crown (made to resemble the Crown of England) on a blue and white decal seal reading “Royal Special, Official Tournament Top.” This yo-yo is in its original packaging, which reads “Royal Champions in Action, watch them on TV.” Royal was a major, mid-century maker started by Filipino immigrant Joe Radovan.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1950s
- maker
- Royal Chico Toys, Inc.
- ID Number
- 2002.0246.53
- accession number
- 2002.0246
- catalog number
- 2002.0246.53
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center