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 2 items.
1926 New York Yankees Autographed Baseball
- Description (Brief)
- This baseball was autographed by members of the 1926 New York Yankees, including future Hall of Famers George Herman “Babe” Ruth (1895-1948) and Lou Gehrig (1903-1941).
- Gehrig played in a record 2,130 consecutive baseball games for the Yankees before amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) forced him from the field in 1939. Gehrig’s continued humility and courage while fatally ill inspired the country. ALS is still commonly referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s disease.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1926
- signer
- Ruth, Babe
- Gehrig, Lou
- associated institution
- New York Yankees
- ID Number
- 2002.0123.01
- accession number
- 2002.0123
- catalog number
- 2002.0123.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Yankee Stadium Ticket Booth
- Description
- This 1923 ticket booth is from Yankee Stadium, called "The House that Ruth Built" because the star slugger, Babe Ruth (1895–1948), revitalized the game, bringing in thousands of new fans.
- Date made
- 1923
- played at
- Ruth, Babe
- user
- New York Yankees
- ID Number
- CL*310894.01
- accession number
- 310894
- catalog number
- 310894.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center