Help with an 1845 baseball rule pamphlet
 

Hi...I recently picked this pamphlet up and was hoping someone might be able to help me out with it.It's 6 pages bound by a single string and called "RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE RECENTLY INVENTED GAME OF BASE BALL AS ADOPTED BY THE KNICKERBOCKER BASE BALL CLUB ON SEPTEMBER 23,1845".
I've only been able to find one image that was similar:

http://www.19cbaseball.com/image-kni...all-rules.html



My copy is word for word until the last page.The image on the internet identifies it as a reprint,while my last page reads:"This pamphlet was hand-set in CASLON OLDSTYLE TYPE and printed on an 1847 Washington flatbed press at the printing office of The Farmers Museum in Cooperstown,New York".
I can't find anything that identifies my copy as a reprint.I'm hoping someone might know another way of authenticating it.

"This pamphlet was hand-set in CASLON OLDSTYLE TYPE and printed on an 1847 Washington flatbed press at the printing office of The Farmers Museum in Cooperstown,New York".

I'm honestly unsure, I'd guess Reprint. It simply states that it was printed on an 1847 Washington flatbed press, and not "in 1847". Also, I don't think the city of Cooperstown was even relevant in regards to baseball until the Mills Commission. I could definitely be wrong about that part though. Anyways, Cooperstown is about 200 or so miles from New York City if that helps puts anything into perspective.

Anyways, here's a link to the "farmers museum" website. Maybe give them a call to see if they have any info about the item.. If not, find out what year they were founded, and then you'll at least know what years that it's not from.

http://www.farmersmuseum.org/

It's still a really cool piece.

I have a similar copy, and it's a reprint. In fact, to my knowledge, nobody has ever seen an original. I don't even know what source this printer used to copy the rules. If it were an original set of 1845 Knickerbocker rules it would be worth millions of dollars.

The Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown opened in 1944. In 1845, it would have been a working farm owned I believe by James Fenimore Cooper or another member of the Cooper family at that time.

The Farmer's Museum is a pretty cool place to spend a quiet afternoon in Cooperstown. They've recreated a village square with work shops showing how various work shops would have looked. The print shop is fully functional and does commercial printing on an old press. They still make and sell these pamphlets in the shop.