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.

Baseball signed by the 1943 St. Louis Cardinals.
Description
Baseball signed by the 1943 St. Louis Cardinals. That season the Cardinals finished 105-49, 1st in the National League, losing to the New York Yankees in the World Series 4 games to 1.
Autographs include Stan Musial; Lou Klein; Whitey Kurowski; Harry Walker; Walker Cooper; Ray Sanders; Danny Litwhiler; Marty Marion; Mort Cooper; Debs Garms; Johnny Hopp; Max Lanier; Al Brazle; Ken O'Dea; Frank Demaree; Sam Narron; Ernie White.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1943
signer
Musial, Stan
maker
Harwood
ID Number
CL.310547.151
accession number
310547
catalog number
310547.151
Stan "The Man" Musial (1920-2013) played first base for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941 to 1963, winning seven National League batting titles, finishing his career with an amazing .331 batting average.
Description
Stan "The Man" Musial (1920-2013) played first base for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941 to 1963, winning seven National League batting titles, finishing his career with an amazing .331 batting average. Extraordinarily consistent at the plate, Musial retired with 3,630 hits, fourth most in baseball history, as well as 475 home runs and 1,951 runs batted in.
Playing outfield for the Cardinals, the native of Pennsylvania won three National League Most Valuable Player trophies (1943, 1946, and 1948,) and led St. Louis to three world championships (1942, 1944, and 1946.) The 24 time All Star was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.
Musial, considered one of the sport's most courteous and generous stars, maintained close ties to the St. Louis community and has been involved in numerous philanthropic and goodwill efforts. President Obama, who awarded Musial the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011, said "Stan remains to this day, an icon, untarnished, a beloved pillar of the community, a gentleman you'd want your kids to emulate."
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1952
user
Musial, Stan
maker
Rawlings
ID Number
2017.0084.11
catalog number
2017.0084.11
accession number
2017.0084

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