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 6 items.
Duncan Rainbo Yo-Yo
- Description (Brief)
- This Duncan steel yo-yo was manufactured by the Cayo Manufacturing Company in 1934. It has flat black sides with a black and white stripe design around the edges. There is a red, yellow and blue internal, metallic spinning disc that can be seen through small cut out windows in the sides. The decal reads “Genuine Duncan Rainbo Yo-Yo, Trade Mark Reg. USA.” The Duncan Toys Company contracted its metal yo-yos to the Cayo Manufacturing Company until World War II.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1934
- maker
- Duncan
- Cayo Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- 2002.0246.02
- accession number
- 2002.0246
- catalog number
- 2002.0246.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1934 Trav-L-Coach house trailer
- Description
- The Cate family of Lakeport, New Hampshire purchased this trailer in 1936 to serve as their vacation home. Cars and highways had created vast new recreational opportunities, and during the Depression many families who were financially stable still enjoyed driving to remote scenic areas. The Cates, like other trailer owners, thought of touring as an extension of home life, and they could afford the security, comfort, and intimacy of a manufactured cottage on wheels.
- Eben Cate was a rural mail carrier on a route through several villages near Lake Winnipesaukee. He earned two weeks of vacation time per year. In 1936 he saw this trailer in a showroom in Laconia, a few miles from his home, and purchased it for pleasure trips. Eben and Vernie and their children, Rudolph and Virginia, made one trip to Florida in their new trailer in 1937, staying one night in many different locations. Every summer during the 1940s, they spent a week at Decatur Motor Camp at York Beach on the southern coast of Maine. They kept house in the trailer, went for walks, and swam in the Atlantic Ocean. Vernie did the housekeeping — not much of a vacation for her, but a change of scenery nonetheless. The Cates also visited Vernie's relatives in East Corinth, Vermont and parked the trailer "out near the barn" with an electrical hookup. The wooden trailer came equipped with a bedroom, sofa beds, table, kitchen, closets, and cupboards.
- House trailers were so appealing that thousands of itinerant people lived in them full-time in the 1930s. But early residential trailer camps had poor sanitary conditions and no landscaping. Some observers believed that traditional communities were threatened by the existence of these ad hoc, transient communities. Trailers created contradictory feelings of pride and disapproval —a far cry from the euphoric autocamping outings of the 1920s.
- Date made
- 1934
- user
- Cate, Eben
- Cate, Vernie
- maker
- Trav-L-Coach
- ID Number
- 1981.0524.01
- accession number
- 1981.0524
- catalog number
- 1981.0524.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Playing cards
- Description (Brief)
- A set of playing cards, probably made of celluloid, contained in an alligator-patterned two-part faux leather case. Pockets on either side of the case contain a game marker. The markers have celluloid discs that indicate "Trump," "Games," and "Points." The cards were manufactured by W. P. Co. of Racine, Wis. They picture an avenue lined with palm trees.
- W. P. Co. was the Western Printing Company, also known as the Western Printing and Lithograph Company, the name under which it was incorporated in 1910.
- The company did a variety of commercial printing from stationery and paper goods to games, puzzles, books, and comic books. It is best known as the publisher and printer of Little Golden Books in partnership with Simon and Schuster.
- date made
- 1939
- maker
- Western Publishing Co., Inc.
- ID Number
- 2006.0098.1472
- catalog number
- 2006.0098.1472
- accession number
- 2006.0098
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Baseball, signed by the 1933 New York Giants
- Description
- Baseball signed by the 1933 New York Giants. That season the Giants went 91-61, winning the National League and beating the Washington Senators in the World Series 4 games to 1.
- Autographs include Mel Ott; Carl Hubbell; Bill Terry; Hughie Critz; Blondy Ryan; Johnny Vergez; Kiddo Davis; Jo-Jo Moore; Gus Mancuso; Lefty O’Doul; Sam Leslie; Hal Schumacher; Freddie Fitzsimmons; Roy Parmelee; Hi Bell; Dolf Luque.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1933
- associated institution
- New York Giants
- maker
- Harwood
- ID Number
- CL*310547.136
- accession number
- 310547
- catalog number
- 310547.136
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Baseball, signed by the 1930 St. Louis Cardinals
- Description
- Baseball signed by the 1930 St. Louis Cardinals. That year the Cardinals finished 92-62, 1st in the National League. The Cardinals lost the World Series to the Philadelphia Athletics 4 games to 2.
- Autographs include Jim Bottomley; Frankie Frisch; Charlie Gelbert; Sparky Adams; George Watkins; Taylor Douthit; Chick Hafey; Jimmie Wilson; Showboat Fisher; Gus Mancuso; Andy High; Ray Blades; Bill Hallahan; Syl Johnson; Jesse Haines; Burleigh Grimes; Flint Rhem; Hi Bell; Al Grabowski; Jim Lindsey.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1930
- associated institution
- St. Louis Cardinals
- maker
- P. Goldsmith Sons Co.
- ID Number
- CL*310547.148
- accession number
- 310547
- catalog number
- 310547.148
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1935 Simplex Servi-Cycle Motorbike
- Description
- Beginning in 1935, the Simplex Manufacturing Corporation of New Orleans made motorbikes, which were smaller and lighter than motorcycles. Their simple designs made personal transportation accessible to young people and adults. Owners found many uses for Servi-Cycles, including errands, pleasure rides, and package delivery using a three-wheeled model. Top speed was 40 miles per hour, and average cruising speed was 30 miles per hour. Postwar sales were strong, but Servi-Cycle sales declined in the 1950s because of the growing popularity of imported motor scooters. Simplex ended motorbike production in 1960 but made motor scooters until 1972, when the company went out of business.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1935
- maker
- Simplex Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- TR*317365
- accession number
- 230387
- catalog number
- 317365
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center