Color photograph of Sam Hendel's hand holding up the handmade Stanley Cup trophy

Description (Brief):

Color photograph of the donor's son, Sam Hendel's, hand holding up the handmade Stanley Cup trophy made by Suzanne Tank with a hockey game being played in the background, April 5, 2008.

Description (Brief)

Curators often attend events in order to collect objects that pertain to a particular event. In this case, fan paraphernalia was collected from the Washington Capitals Stanley Cup Parade celebration in 2019 to document the whole sports experience. Fan objects can tell quite a story about the fan, the team, the sport and what’s happening in society at a particular time. It also speaks to what the user or maker of that object was feeling at the time. Why did they carry that particular object on that particular day. This trophy was born from superstition, to visualize the Cup and perhaps a win for the Captials in their first Stanley Cup playoff appearance in 2008. The photographs document the family's use of this prop throughout the years and their level of dedication to their team.

Description (Brief)

The Washington Capitals were founded in 1974 as an expansion team and are a member of the Metropolitan Division of the eastern Conference in the National Hockey League. They played at the Capitals Center in Landover, Maryland until 1997 when they made the move to the Verizon Center located in the heart of Washington, DC. Ted Leonsis bought the team in 1999, drafted high profile players and began winning. Since 2009 the Capitals have won eleven division titles, three President’s trophies and in 2018, finally won the elusive Stanley Cup Championship.