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 24 items.
Page 1 of 3
Kodak Petite Camera
- Description
- Since Kodak introduced the Brownie in 1900, a variety of easy-to-use cameras have been marketed, especially to women. The Kodak Petite from 1935, part of the Kodak Coquette set, came with a matching compact and lipstick case in a variety of color choices so that one might use it as an accessory to fashionable outfits.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1935
- maker
- Eastman Kodak Company
- ID Number
- 1995.0046.01
- catalog number
- 1995.0046.01
- accession number
- 1995.0046
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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
Baseball, signed by the Washington Senators.
- Description
- Autographed baseball from the 1930 Washington Senators of the American League. The players come from teams dating between the 1928 and 1930 seasons.
- Autographs include Bucky Harris; Bump Hadley; Sam West; Joe Judge; Sam Rice; Sam Jones; Garland Braxton; Fripo Marbury; Muddy Ruel; Goose Goslin; Ossie Bluege; Joe Cronin: Buddy Myer; Jackie Hayes; Ad Liska; Bennie Tate; Walter Johnson.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1930
- signer
- Judge, J.
- Johnson, Walter Perry
- associated institution
- Washington Senators
- maker
- A. J. Reach Co.
- ID Number
- 2000.0021.01
- catalog number
- 2000.0021.01
- accession number
- 2000.0021
- 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 1935 Washington Senators
- Description
- Baseball signed by the 1935 Washington Senators. That season the Senators finished 67-86, 6th in the American League.
- Autographs include Joe Kuhel; Buddy Myer; Ossie Bluege; Cecil Travis; John Stone; Jake Powell; Heinie Manush; Cliff Bolton; Red Kress; Fred Schulte; Dee Miles; Sammy Holbrook; Earl Whitehill; Bump Hadley; Bobo Newsome; Ed Linke; Jack Russell; Leon Pettit; Bucky Harris.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1935
- maker
- A. J. Reach Co.
- ID Number
- CL*310547.114
- accession number
- CL*310547
- catalog number
- CL*310547.114
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Baseball, signed by the 1936 Chicago White Sox
- Description
- Autographed baseball signed by the 1936 Chicago White Sox. That season the White Sox finished 81-70, 4th in the American League.
- Autographs include Zeke Bonura; Jackie Hayes; Luke Appling; Jimmy Dykes; Mule Haas; Mike Kreevich; Rip Radcliff; Luke Sewell; Tony Piet; Larry Rosenthal; Vern Kennedy; John Whitehead; Sugar Cain; Ted Lyons; Monty Stratton; Clint Brown; Ray Phelps; Jimmy Dikes.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1936
- associated institution
- Chicago White Sox
- maker
- A. J. Reach Co.
- ID Number
- CL*310547.117
- accession number
- CL*310547
- catalog number
- CL*310547.117
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Baseball, signed by the 1933 Detroit Tigers
- Description
- Baseball signed by the 1933 Detroit Tigers. That season the Tigers finished 75-79, 5th in the American League.
- Autographs include Mickey Cochrane; Schoolboy Rowe; Hank Greenberg; Jo Jo White; Cy Perkins; Charlie Gehringer; Billy Rogell; Marv Owen; John Stone; Pete Fox; Gee Walker; Ray Hayworth; Harry Davis; Frank Doljack; Firpo Marberry; Tommy Bridges; Vic Sorrell; Carl Fischer; Chief Hogsett; Vic Frazier; Buckey Harris; Del Baker.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1934
- signer
- Cochrane, Mickey
- Rowe, Schoolboy
- Greenberg, Hank
- White, Jo Jo
- Perkins, Cy
- associated institution
- Detroit Tigers
- maker
- Amateur
- ID Number
- CL*310547.120
- catalog number
- 310547.120
- accession number
- 310547
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Baseball, signed by the 1937 New York Yankees
- Description
- Baseball signed by the 1937 New York Yankees. That season the Yankees finished 102-25, defeating the New York Giants 4 games to 1 to win the World Series.
- Autographs include Joe DiMaggio; Lou Gehrig; Tony Lazzeri; Lefty Gomez; Frankie Crosetti; Red Rolfe; Myril Hoag; Jake Powell; Bill Dickey; George Selkirk; Tommy Henrich; Don Heffner; Red Ruffing; Bump Hadley; Monte Pearson; Johnny Murphy; Pat Malone; Kemp WIcker; Spud Chandler; Frank Makosky.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1937
- signer
- DiMaggio, Joe
- Gehrig, Lou
- Lazzeri, Tony
- Gomez, Lefty
- maker
- A. J. Reach Co.
- ID Number
- CL*310547.123
- accession number
- 310547
- catalog number
- 310547.123
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Baseball, signed by the 1935 Philadelphia Athletics
- Description
- Baseball signed by the 1935 Philadelphia Athletics. That season, the A's finished 58-91, 8th in the American League.
- Autographs include Connie Mack; Jimmie Foxx; Roger Cramer; Skeeter Newsome; Wally Moses; Rabbit Warstler; Eric McNair; Pinky Higgins; Bob Johnson; Paul Richards; Lou Finney; Charlie Berry; Johnny Marcum; Bill Dietrich; George Blaeholder; Whitey Wilshere; Roy Mahaffey.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1935
- associated institution
- Philadelphia Athletics
- maker
- Davega Sports
- ID Number
- CL*310547.128
- accession number
- 310547
- catalog number
- 310547.128
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center