Sports & Leisure

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.

This jumbo-size wooden yo-yo was made by Royal Manufacturing Company in the 1950s. It is blue with a gold stripe, and features a red and yellow crown graphic meant to look like the Crown of England. A blue and white decal reads “Royal Tops Mfg. Co. L.I City. N.Y.
Description (Brief)
This jumbo-size wooden yo-yo was made by Royal Manufacturing Company in the 1950s. It is blue with a gold stripe, and features a red and yellow crown graphic meant to look like the Crown of England. A blue and white decal reads “Royal Tops Mfg. Co. L.I City. N.Y. King Size Yo-Yo.” Royal was a major mid-century maker begun by Filipino immigrant Joe Radovan.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1950s
maker
Royal Tops Manufacturing Co.
ID Number
2002.0246.24
accession number
2002.0246
catalog number
2002.0246.24
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1923
date used
1936 to 1960s
maker
Beetleware Corporation
ID Number
1984.0331.11
accession number
1984.0331
catalog number
1984.0331.11
patent number
1458543
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1923
date used
1936 to 1960s
maker
Beetleware Corporation
ID Number
1984.0331.04
accession number
1984.0331
catalog number
1984.0331.04
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1923
date used
1936 to 1960s
maker
Beetleware Corporation
ID Number
1984.0331.06
accession number
1984.0331
catalog number
1984.0331.06
This wooden "Smothers Brothers" yo-yo was made by the Hummingbird Toy Company in 1988. The yo-yo is unopened upon its original yellow, red and black display card that also holds an owner’s manual.
Description (Brief)
This wooden "Smothers Brothers" yo-yo was made by the Hummingbird Toy Company in 1988. The yo-yo is unopened upon its original yellow, red and black display card that also holds an owner’s manual. Silhouette images of the brothers holding musical instruments are printed on the card. The yo-yo has flat sides and a stamped drawing of Dick Smothers (1939- ). The Smothers Brothers were a duo comedy variety act who parlayed their song “Yo-yo Man” into a successful instructional video and yo-yo line.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1988
depicted
Smothers Brothers
maker
Hummingbird Toy Company, Ltd.
ID Number
2002.0246.52
accession number
2002.0246
catalog number
2002.0246.52
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1923
date used
1936 to 1960s
maker
Beetleware Corporation
ID Number
1984.0331.09
accession number
1984.0331
catalog number
1984.0331.09
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1923
date used
1936 to 1960s
maker
Beetleware Corporation
ID Number
1984.0331.10
accession number
1984.0331
catalog number
1984.0331.10
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1923
date used
1936 to 1960s
maker
Beetleware Corporation
ID Number
1984.0331.07
accession number
1984.0331
catalog number
1984.0331.07
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1923
date used
1936 to 1960s
maker
Beetleware Corporation
ID Number
1984.0331.05
accession number
1984.0331
catalog number
1984.0331.05
This song book University of Minnesota Songs, was published by Thornton W. Allen in New York, New York in 1926.Currently not on view
Description
This song book University of Minnesota Songs, was published by Thornton W. Allen in New York, New York in 1926.
Location
Currently not on view
publishing date
1926
referenced
University of Minnesota
publisher
University of Minnesota
ID Number
1986.0370.03
accession number
1986.0370
catalog number
1986.0370.03
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1923
date used
1936 to 1960s
maker
Beetleware Corporation
ID Number
1984.0331.03
accession number
1984.0331
catalog number
1984.0331.03
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1923
date used
1936 to 1960s
maker
Beetleware Corporation
ID Number
1984.0331.12
accession number
1984.0331
catalog number
1984.0331.12
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1923
date made
ca 1936
patent date
1923-06-12
date used
1936 to 1960s
maker
Beetleware Corporation
ID Number
1984.0331.01
accession number
1984.0331
catalog number
1984.0331.01
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1981-05-08
photographer
Regan, Ken
ID Number
2014.0112.053
catalog number
2014.0112.053
accession number
2014.0112
This wooden yo-yo was made by the Goody Manufacturing Company in the 1950s-1960s. Goody was a main competitor of the Duncan Toys Co.
Description (Brief)
This wooden yo-yo was made by the Goody Manufacturing Company in the 1950s-1960s. Goody was a main competitor of the Duncan Toys Co. who had trademarked term “yo-yo.” Instead, Goody called their products “Filipino Twirlers,” in reference to the toys' presumed Filipino origins.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1950s-1960s
maker
Goody
ID Number
2002.0246.16
accession number
2002.0246
catalog number
2002.0246.16
This model demonstrates the invention of a mechanical crawling doll. It accompanied the patent submission of George Pemberton Clarke, who received U.S. patent No.
Description
This model demonstrates the invention of a mechanical crawling doll. It accompanied the patent submission of George Pemberton Clarke, who received U.S. patent No. 118,435 on 29 August 1871 for his “Natural Creeping Baby Doll.” The original patent office tag is still attached with red tape. Clarke’s patent was an improvement on the crawling baby doll patent of his associate Robert J. Clay (No. 112,550 granted 14 March 1871).
The doll’s head, two arms and two legs are made of painted plaster. The arms and legs are hinged to a brass clockwork body that actuates the arms and legs in imitation of crawling, but the doll moves forward by rolling along on two toothed wheels. A flat piece of wood is attached to top of the movement.
A commercial version of the doll is also in the collection. See also Catalog number 2011.0204.01a.
This mechanical toy is part of a fascinating continuum of figures built to imitate human life. This long Western tradition stretches from ancient Greece through the mechanical automatons of the Enlightenment, through wind-up toys to contemporary robots and other machines with artificial intelligence.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1871
patent date
1871-08-29
inventor
Clarke, George P.
ID Number
1984.0923.01
accession number
1984.0923
catalog number
1984.0923.01
patent number
118,435
This small canoe was built in 1882 by J. H. Rushton in Canton, New York, for writer and adventurer George Washington Sears. Under the name "Nessmuk," Sears penned essays on hunting, fishing, and camping for popular journals and magazines.Currently on loan
Description
This small canoe was built in 1882 by J. H. Rushton in Canton, New York, for writer and adventurer George Washington Sears. Under the name "Nessmuk," Sears penned essays on hunting, fishing, and camping for popular journals and magazines.
Location
Currently on loan
date made
1882
maker
Rushton, J. H.
ID Number
TR.160315
accession number
7809
catalog number
160315
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1923
patent date
1923-06-12
date used
1936 to 1960s
maker
Beetleware Corporation
ID Number
1984.0331.02
accession number
1984.0331
catalog number
1984.0331.02
This wooden yo-yo was made by Royal Chico Toys in the 1950s.
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
Althea Gibson. I Always Wanted To Be Somebody (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958). with original paper jacket.Currently not on view
Description (Brief)
Althea Gibson. I Always Wanted To Be Somebody (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958). with original paper jacket.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1958
referenced
Gibson, Althea
maker
Harper & Brothers
ID Number
2017.0191.08
accession number
2017.0191
catalog number
2017.0191.08
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
ca 1923
date used
1936 to 1960s
maker
Beetleware Corporation
ID Number
1984.0331.13
accession number
1984.0331
catalog number
1984.0331.13
The Cate family of Lakeport, New Hampshire purchased this trailer in 1936 to serve as their vacation home.
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
ID Number
1986.0015.01
catalog number
1986.0015.01
accession number
1986.0015
A color print of a race track scene. The spectators in two grandstands and behind the fence cheer the winning horse as he crosses the finish line with his jockey, a full length ahead of the next competitor. A large pack of horses and jockeys follow.
Description
A color print of a race track scene. The spectators in two grandstands and behind the fence cheer the winning horse as he crosses the finish line with his jockey, a full length ahead of the next competitor. A large pack of horses and jockeys follow. The judge at the finish line observes with folded hands. Two American flags rise above the stands.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1887
maker
Currier & Ives
ID Number
DL.60.3241
catalog number
60.3241

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