Oldest Memorabilia

[bbpostcards]

1. c. 1866 Oregon CDV of Portland Pioneer Base Ball Club player Joseph Wiley. The bottom CDV includes him several years later.

2. 1866 invitation for the First Grand Ball of the Arena Base Ball Club held on November 15 at Masonic Hall in Manayunk, a Philadelphia neighborhood.

3. First Anniversary Ball of the St. Charles, Missouri Base Ball Club held at the New York Hall on September 30, 1867.

4. The St. Charles, Missouri Base Ball Club held its second annual Calico Dress Ball on February 14, 1868.

5. 1870 Oregon CDV of Portland Pioneer Base Ball Club members. Joseph Buchtel (the team's founder) is at the top. Joseph Wiley (the person in the first CDV) is at the bottom left.

Information about these and related images is on the website below.

[Runscott]

Too much great stuff to comment on all of it, but I really like the history behind this group.

The cdv's and tintype images everyone has been posting are just amazing - making me feel 'photo inadequate'. If you guys got together, you could put together a heckuva virtual cdv/tintype museum.

Originally Posted by bbpostcards

1. c. 1866 Oregon CDV of Portland Pioneer Base Ball Club player Joseph Wiley. The bottom CDV includes him several years later.

.....

5. 1870 Oregon CDV of Portland Pioneer Base Ball Club members. Joseph Buchtel (the team's founder) is at the top. Joseph Wiley (the person in the first CDV) is at the bottom left.

Information about these and related images is on the website below.

[jpop43]

Not our "oldest", but certainly one of the earliest mfg. marked rings bats we're likely to ever see...this is our c.1870's Peck & Snyder bat.

www.dugouttreasures.com

[bbpostcards]

Before there were postcards there were postal cards. The postal card is from 1875 and on its reverse advertised the wares of the Peck & Snyder sporting goods company. The woodcut image show the fun that lays behind the storefront.

The 1876 trade card below it marks the first time to my knowledge that a baseball scene at a true baseball park (Boston's South End Grounds) was used to promote a product, and is also the earliest panorama of that park. Advertising Washburn & Moen barb wire, the woodcut on the front is captioned, "Barb Fence Armor. - The Boston Base Ball Grounds, enclosed with 'Barb Armed' Fence."

The engraver is John A. Lowell. He was involved in Boston baseball from the late 1850's forward and was so influential that the Boston Lowells was named after him. The message on the reverse is from the president of the Boston Base Ball Association. As the National League was founded in 1876, this image shows South End Grounds, the home of the Boston Red Caps, in its first year as a professional stadium. The detail is interesting. People peeking over the fence. Fans buying tickets. Men, women, kids, all at the ballgame. American flags adorning the grandstands. View of Boston in the distance. The maker of the barbed wire is Wasburn & Moen Manufacturing Co.

More items like these can be viewed on the website below.

[Runscott]

1866 letter from a student attending college in Kentucky, to his sister. He states that most of the students are 'Unions'.

[ValKehl]

In 1884, Washington, DC, fielded a team, known both as the Nationals and the Statesmen, in the American Association. After losing a game by a score of 6 - 5 on August 2nd to the eventual league champion NY Metropolitans, the Washington team, with a 12 - 51 record, threw in the towel, as noted on this scorecard for this game and on this 1884 Washington team schedule:

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

In 1884, Washington, DC, fielded a team, known both as the Nationals and the Statesmen, in the American Association. After losing a game by a score of 6 - 5 on August 2nd to the eventual league champion NY Metropolitans, the Washington team, with a 12 - 51 record, threw in the towel, as noted on this scorecard for this game and on this 1884 Washington team schedule:

Very cool, Val! That's an amazing piece of early Washington AA history.

[ValKehl]

Thanks, Scott. Although I am mostly a card collector, these two complimentary pieces do fascinate me, having lived in the VA suburbs of Washington all of my life.
Val