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.

Text and photograph from Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Vol. II. Negative by David Knox, text and positive by Alexander Gardner.The monotony of camp life was relieved by every variety of amusement that was known, or could be devised.
Description
Text and photograph from Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Vol. II. Negative by David Knox, text and positive by Alexander Gardner.
The monotony of camp life was relieved by every variety of amusement that was known, or could be devised. During the periods of inactivity, base ball, cricket, gymnastics, foot races, &c., were indulged in to a great extent, and on holidays horse races, foot races, and other games were allowed. Sometimes the men would put up a greased pole, with a prize on the top, for anyone who succeeded in climbing up to it, and not unfrequently a pig would be turned loose with a shaved and greased tail, for the men to catch. Any grip but a "tail hold" was illegitimate, but he who seized and held the pig by this appendage, carried it off in triumph to his mess.
Cock fighting, however, was quite unusual, and seldom permitted, except when some of the contrabands incited their captured Shanghais, or more ignoble fowls, to combat. Such displays were always ludicrous, and were generally exhibited for the amusement of the mess for whom the feathered bipeds were intended. Horses and mules perished by hundreds from ill-usage, but with thin exception it would be exceedingly difficult to cite an instance of cruelty to animals in the army. Fowls, dogs, kittens, and even wild animals, were made pets of, and were cared for most tenderly. Sometimes a regiment would adopt a dog, and woe to the individual who ventured to maltreat it. Several of the Western regiments carried pet bears with them, and one regiment was accompanied by a tame eagle in all its campaigns.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1864-08
maker
Gardner, Alexander
ID Number
1986.0711.0283.26
accession number
1986.0711
catalog number
1986.0711.0283.26
Sometime around her 17th birthday, Canadian Bernice Palmer received a Kodak Brownie box camera (No. 2A Model), either for Christmas 1911 or for her birthday on 10 January 1912.
Description
Sometime around her 17th birthday, Canadian Bernice Palmer received a Kodak Brownie box camera (No. 2A Model), either for Christmas 1911 or for her birthday on 10 January 1912. In early April, she and her mother boarded the Cunard liner Carpathia in New York, for a Mediterranean cruise. Carpathia had scarcely cleared New York, when it received a distress call from the White Star liner Titanic on 14 April. It raced to the scene of the sinking and managed to rescue over 700 survivors from the icy North Atlantic. With her new camera, Bernice took pictures of the iceberg that sliced open the Titanic’s hull below the waterline and also took snapshots of some of the Titanic survivors. Lacking enough food to feed both the paying passengers and Titanic survivors, the Carpathia turned around and headed back to New York to land the survivors. Unaware of the high value of her pictures, Bernice sold publication rights to Underwood & Underwood for just $10 and a promise to develop, print, and return her pictures after use. In 1986, she donated her camera, the pictures and her remarkable story to the Smithsonian.
date made
ca 1912
user
Ellis, Bernice P.
maker
Eastman Kodak Company
ID Number
1986.0173.38
accession number
1986.0173
catalog number
1986.0173.38
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1974-12
depicted (sitter)
King, Billie Jean
photographer
Regan, Ken
ID Number
2014.0112.104
catalog number
2014.0112.104
accession number
2014.0112
Since Kodak introduced the Brownie in 1900, a variety of easy-to-use cameras have been marketed, especially to women.
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.
Date made
1935
maker
Eastman Kodak Company
ID Number
1995.0046.01
catalog number
1995.0046.01
accession number
1995.0046
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1960s-1980s
depicted (sitter)
Kennedy, Edward M.
maker
Regan, Ken
ID Number
2013.0327.1232
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.1232
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1974-03
photographer
Regan, Ken
ID Number
2014.0112.062
catalog number
2014.0112.062
accession number
2014.0112
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
PG.67.88.00062
accession number
270586
catalog number
67.88.00062
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Larsen, Lisa
ID Number
1986.0711.0112
accession number
1986.0711
catalog number
1986.0711.0112
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
PG.67.88.00063
accession number
270586
catalog number
67.88.00063
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
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
19th century
maker
Bennett, Henry Hamilton
ID Number
1977.1062.129
accession number
1977.1062
catalog number
1977.1062.129
Text and photograph from Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Vol. II. Negative by Timothy H.
Description
Text and photograph from Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Vol. II. Negative by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, text and positive by Alexander Gardner.
"Cigars and cognac, with these we bivouac," says the old song, but as Cognac was, in the army, a questionable fluid, to say the least of it, and scarce at that, the lounger in the grass wisely contented himself with the pleasures of the weed. His good war-steed, in condition highly creditable to the groom, patiently accepts the opportunity to rest, evidently affording an object of critical admiration to his master, whose orderly meanwhile keeps an eye about the vicinity. There is nothing particular in the picture to account for this little halt, but those who recognize the officer, may possibly give a shrewd guess at his reasons. He is the Quartermaster of the Headquarters of the Army of the Potomac, and has doubtless ridden forward to the position selected for camp, to examine its capabilities, and await the arrival of his wagon-train, in order to personally superintend the pitching of the tents, and the parking of the wagons.
To still further satisfy curiosity, it may be mentioned that the reclining officer is Captain Harry Page, since Colonel and Chief Quartermaster of the Cavalry Corps, one of the most arduous posts of duty in the service, and one whose necessities during the severe campaigns up the Shenandoah Valley, and in the vicinity of Richmond, kept the young Colonel always upon his mettle.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1864-05
maker
Gardner, Alexander
ID Number
1986.0711.0334.50
accession number
1986.0711
catalog number
1986.0711.0334.50
mounted black and white photograph (possibly matte collodion) by J.B.
Description (Brief)
mounted black and white photograph (possibly matte collodion) by J.B. Wilson Studio, 389 State St., Chicago; image of 1897 Champions of the Mergantile Baseball League; team name is Mandel Bros.; nine men in baseball uniform with one man in black suit and white shirt sitting in center posing for photograph; players identified as 1. Werntz, Sec'y 2. Reker 3. Faulkner 4. Van Zandt 5. Wenig, G. 6. Litzinger, Capt. 7. Hebel, Mgr. 8. Wenig, F. 9. Burley 10. Alberts
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1897
ID Number
1986.3048.2168
catalog number
1986.3048.2168
nonaccession number
1986.3048
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
before 1972
ID Number
1983.0838.0138
accession number
1983.0838
catalog number
1983.0838.138
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Heyman, Ken
ID Number
1982.0545.209
accession number
1982.0545.209
catalog number
82.545.209
mounted black and white photograph; group of three men and seven women playing croquet in the back yard of a house; multi-level home behind them, first floor right corner is covered in ivy; tree to left; wood plank fence dividing lawns to right and more homes are visible on other
Description (Brief)
mounted black and white photograph; group of three men and seven women playing croquet in the back yard of a house; multi-level home behind them, first floor right corner is covered in ivy; tree to left; wood plank fence dividing lawns to right and more homes are visible on other side of fence
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
1986.3048.0212
nonaccession number
1986.3048
catalog number
86.3048.212
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
PG.67.88.00046
accession number
270586
catalog number
67.88.00046
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
PG.67.88.00044
accession number
270586
catalog number
67.88.00044
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1950s
maker
Falk, Sam
ID Number
PG.69.99.062
catalog number
69.99.62
accession number
281224
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
publisher
Underwood & Underwood Illustration Studios
ID Number
PG.67.88.00012
catalog number
67.88.00012
accession number
270586
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
PG.67.88.00043
accession number
270586
catalog number
67.88.00043
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
PG.67.88.00036
accession number
270586
catalog number
67.88.00036
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
publisher
Underwood & Underwood Illustration Studios
ID Number
PG.67.88.00009
accession number
270586
catalog number
67.88.00009
Gelatin silver photographic print, Water Ski, by Flip Schulke.; black and white image, photographer is underwater, aiming camera up towards surface at a person on water skis;Condition: Overall paper rippling.
Description (Brief)
Gelatin silver photographic print, Water Ski, by Flip Schulke.; black and white image, photographer is underwater, aiming camera up towards surface at a person on water skis;
Condition: Overall paper rippling. Label attached to verso, "32"; verso center stamped, "2 2511".
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Schulke, Flip
ID Number
PG.71.13.32
catalog number
71.13.32
accession number
2018.0072

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