Baseball Gets Stamp Of Approval From Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum
Thursday, March 24, 2022 at 03:47PM NYSJ Sports-Entertainment Business News Service
March 24, 2022: The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum in Washington DC is putting its stamp of approval on baseball with "Baseball: America's Home Run.”
The exhibition “explores America's national pastime via hundreds of U.S. and international stamps commemorating great players and historic moments, including stamps produced by trading card companies as part of baseball card collections.
According to the National Postal Museum, of the more than 60 baseball stamps issued by the United States since 1939, the vast majority commemorate individual players. They include Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Lefty Grove and Lou Gehrig,
The display of stamps and mail will be complemented by dozens of objects loaned by other Smithsonian museums, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, renowned private collections and elsewhere.
Items include game-worn uniforms, jackets and hats, game-used bats and memorabilia from America's pastime.
"The exhibition examines the mythologies of the game of baseball and the role postage stamps have played in creating and enforcing that mythology," Daniel Piazza, chief curator. said via the National Postal Museum.
“We tell some of the lesser-known stories about the game of baseball through the medium of stamps and mail and explore fascinating details about the game in new and unique ways."
The exhibit coincides with the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson being called up to the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947 as MLB’s first African American player, and the 50th anniversary of the untimely death of Roberto Clemente in 1972.
Among the themes:
• “Creating Baseball" looks at early U.S. baseball-themed stamps and the myths they reflect about the origins of the sport
.
• “We All Play Ball" examines baseball's global spread in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• “The Negro Leagues"
• “Legendary Playing Fields"
"We are proud to have Institution-wide cooperation from the Smithsonian, participation from the greatest organizations dedicated to the sport of baseball and support from businesses and private collectors who love the game," Elliot Gruber, director, said via the National Postal Museum.
"Baseball: America's Home Run” — presented in English and Spanish through a collaboration with the Smithsonian Latino Center — runs April 9 through Jan. 5, 2025. Admission is free.
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