On April 9, following many delays occasioned by the global pandemic and attendant closures of the National Postal Museum, we opened “Baseball: America’s Home Run.”
A gala opening three days earlier was attended by Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III; U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy; and descendants of legendary players Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, and Yogi Berra, all of whom have memorabilia on display in the exhibition. The exhibit’s opening coincided with the museum’s return to a full, seven days per week operating schedule.
Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch and Sonya Pankey, eldest grandchild of Jackie Robinson, at the opening of “Baseball: America’s Home Run.”
Objects
The visually rich and incredibly rare material in this show comes, first and foremost, from our own permanent collection. The National Postal Museum has the second largest collection at the Smithsonian Institution, and we drew heavily from our own holdings of stamps and mail.
More than 60 U.S. postage stamps commemorate baseball’s playing fields, players, and great moments. Taking these stamps as our departure point, we shed new light on a much-studied topic and focus intensely on the history of the game through the 20th century.
In addition, we have borrowed pieces from the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, National Air and Space Museum, and Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. The original artwork for U.S. postage stamps, and incredibly rare proof material and press sheets of those stamps, are from the amazing Postmaster General’s Collection of the United States Postal Service.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy chats with Larry Berra, Yogi’s son and a philatelist who specializes in the definitive series of 1902-03, especially the $1 Farragut.
Baseball letters not from our own collection have been lent by the Library of Congress Manuscripts Division and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The Hall of Fame, Boston Red Sox, and Chicago Cubs lent many stadium artifacts and have been wonderful collaborators with us, in both the research and presentation of this exhibition.
There is also an interesting companion exhibit of fake baseball memorabilia seized from the mail, lent by law enforcement officers with the United States Postal Inspection Service and the FBI.
Private collectors have also shared their treasured pieces with us, to help us put the postal artifacts in a larger context. These loans will attract a much broader audience to the show, and while they are here these visitors will have an opportunity to learn a lot about postage stamps and postal history.
Roberto Clemente Jr. and Roberto Clemente III, at the opening of “Baseball: America’s Home Run.”
In the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery, part of the exhibition explores the history of the game from prehistory to the Centennial of Professional Baseball stamp issued in 1969.
Stories
The building that houses the National Postal Museum – Washington, D.C.’s old City Post Office – was built in 1914 on the site of one of the city’s earliest ballfields. A National League field called Capitol Grounds existed here from 1886 until 1890. It held, according to newspaper reports of the time, up to 6,500 fans who watched major league baseball games in the shadow of the Capitol Dome. Cornelius MacGillicuddy – better known as Connie Mack – made his major league debut here in 1886 and went on to become the legendary manager of the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 years, from 1901-1950. So this place occupies a significant niche in baseball history.
National League match at Capitol Grounds, circa 1888. (Courtesy Historical Society of Washington, D.C.)
The U.S. issued its first baseball stamp in 1939. Called the Centennial of Baseball issue, it was a project of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Postmaster General James Farley to commemorate the 100th anniversary of an event that never took place – the invention of baseball by Abner Doubleday at Cooperstown, New York. Local boosters parlayed the Doubleday story into a Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York.
The 3-cent Centennial of Baseball Issue first day handstamp, June 12, 1939. (Loan from National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.)
The June 12, 1939, opening events and dedication ceremonies at the Hall, known as the “Cavalcade of Baseball,” were the first professionally marketed sporting anniversary in American history. Postmaster general and New York Yankees fan James A. Farley issued a postage stamp for the occasion. The stamp sold millions of copies, giving a federal seal of approval to a key piece of baseball mythology, and helped to propagate the Doubleday myth for generations.
During both world wars, military play spread baseball around the world. Hundreds of major league players served in the U.S. armed forces, many of them entertaining and raising morale among the troops by playing the game. We have long letters from service members overseas, describing fantasy baseball leagues in the Pacific theater or relating how they watched future Hall of Famers Specialist First Class Johnny Mize and Staff Sergeant Joe DiMaggio play baseball on post in Hawaii during September 1944.
Troops weren’t the only government employees to wear baseball uniforms. By 1890, Black players were excluded from professional baseball by mutual agreement among White team owners. African Americans and Latino Americans instead found playing opportunities in the various Negro Leagues, as well as in Mexico, Cuba, and the Caribbean. These leagues couldn’t pay their players as well as the Major Leagues, however, and many Negro Leaguers took “day jobs” to make ends meet. The Post Office was the largest civilian employer of African Americans in Negro League era, so more than a few players were also postal employees. This exhibit highlights the career of “Ed” Bolden, who was manager of the Hilldale Athletic Club; an organizer with Andrew “Rube” Foster of the 1924 Colored World Series; and for 40 years was a postal clerk in Philadelphia's central post office.
Major League Baseball finally integrated in 1947. In this 75th anniversary year of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color line, we’re pleased to be showing his game-worn road jersey alongside other memorabilia of that opening day in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Robinson later became the first baseball player honored with his own postage stamp, a 1982 issue in the long-running Black Heritage series, and the original artwork for that stamp by noted illustrator Jerry Pinkney is on display.
Lastly, the exhibit explores the many commonalities between stamp and baseball collecting. For more than a century now, baseball cards, postage stamps, and postcards have taken inspiration from each other. For example, the Helmar baseball stamps issued in 1911, recognized as baseball cards in the American Card Catalog as set T332, are photoengraved vignettes of baseball players that were included in packets of Turkish cigarettes. Players’ busts appear within a frame and their name in a scroll below, very closely resembling the definitive stamp series of 1902-03 then in circulation.
The Helmar baseball card stamps of 1911 and definitive postage stamps from the 1902-03 series. (Helmar stamps only: Loan from National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.)
The Legendary Playing Fields issue of 2001 was based on postcards, while baseball card publishers in the early 20th century printed baseball cards as regulation-size postcards designed to be sent through the mail. Regardless of whether their passion is stamps or baseball cards, all collectors speak the language of condition, rarity, and provenance, themes that are woven throughout this exhibition.
A 3-cent Centennial of Baseball issue first day cover autographed by Joe DiMaggio and Babe Ruth. (Loan from Wade E. Saadi.)
Digital engagement
There is an extensive companion website at https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/baseball-americas-home-run with selected objects from the exhibition, a listing of upcoming programs and events, reading list, and other related content. There are currently a half-dozen exhibition-related videos on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/SmithsonianNPM, with nearly three dozen more currently in post-production that will be posted shortly.
Baseball cards sent through the mail are coveted by postal history, baseball, and postcard collectors alike. (Loan from The Stephen Wong Collection.)
Rotations
The longevity of the exhibit will be extended with two rotations. The second rotation, from March 13, 2023 to February 11, 2024, will highlight Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle questing after Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1961, based on the 61 in ’61 commemorative stamp from the Celebrate the Century series. Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente will be replaced by Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. Many other stories will remain the same.
The third rotation, from February 20, 2024, to January 6, 2025, will feature Bobby Thomson’s home run that advanced the New York Giants to the 1951 World Series, inspired by the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” commemorative from the Celebrate the Century series, as well as Lefty Grove and Dizzy Dean from the Legends of Baseball sheet.