Scope and Contents

Baseball memorabilia, including postcards, of teams, players, venues and other baseball-related topics; team programs, 1930s-1990s, mostly for minor league teams but including a few major league teams; sheet music; advertising on baseball topics; posters; black-and-white photographs of baseball players and teams; and ephemeral items such as ticket stubs.

Biographical / Historical

Lou Newman, a retired New York City businessman originally from Baltimore, is a third-generation baseball fan and collector of baseball memorabilia. He continued the tradition started by his grandfather and his father, of anything connected to baseball. Before he donated portions of it, Mr. Newman's massive collection filled an entire room in his home, and included baseball books numbering in the thousands, baseball games and toys, coin banks, watches and charms, pennants, uniforms, advertising, baseball art, bats, balls, baseball cards, products with player endorsements, buttons, pins, and numerous other types of items. Mr. Newman, in his travels throughout the U.S., expanded on the collection by gathering souvenirs and memorabilia from games and stadiums in the many places he visited, collecting not just on the major leagues but the minor leagues and spring training.

General

OVERVIEW

SIRIS No.: AAY1660 AC NMAH 0696

LOU NEWMAN COLLECTION OF BASEBALL MEMORABILIA, 1895-1999

(2 DB, 2 Shoeboxes, 1 F/O, 1 large F/O, 1 OV Folder)

Biography

Lou Newman, a retired New York City businessman originally from Baltimore, is a third-generation baseball fan and collector of baseball memorabilia. He continued the tradition started by his grandfather and his father, of anything connected to baseball. Before he donated portions of it, Mr. Newman's massive collection filled an entire room in his home, and included baseball books numbering in the thousands, baseball games and toys, coin banks, watches and charms, pennants, uniforms, advertising, baseball art, bats, balls, baseball cards, products with player endorsements, buttons, pins, and numerous other types of items. Mr. Newman, in his travels throughout the U.S., expanded on the collection by gathering souvenirs and memorabilia from games and stadiums in the many places he visited, collecting not just on the major leagues but the minor leagues and spring training.

Provenance

Mr. Newman donated the archival collection to the Archives Center and numerous artifacts to the Division of Cultural History in 1999. He donated nearly his entire collection of baseball books to the Babe Ruth Museum in Baltimore a short time later.

Scope and content

The archival collection is divided into seven series: Series I: TEAM PROGRAMS, 1895-1999, mostly minor leagues; Series II, POSTCARDS, most undated but many go back to the turn of the 20th century, in addition to some before that date which are reproductions; Series III: SHEET MUSIC, 1908-1984, entirely on the subject of baseball; Series IV: ADVERTISING, with baseball images, including advertising for newspapers, soft drinks, beer, tobacco and other products, and many posters, including one movie poster for a 1928 silent film Warming Up; Series V: PHOTOGRAPHS, mostly black and white portraits of major league players; Series VI: MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS, undated and 1903, 1950, including a comic book, a short story magazine and a theater program; and Series VII: EPHEMERA, consisting entirely of ticket stubs.

Bibliography

Michael Benson's (McFarland and Co., 1989) was used as a reference guide for the postcards of baseball parks and venues. by Donald D. Jones (McFarland and Co., 1997) was used as a reference guide for postcards on teams. (4th Revised Edition) by Hy Turkin and S.C. Thompson (A.S. Barnes and Company) was also used as a reference.

Series List

I: Team Programs, 1895-1999

I-A: Minor league programs, 1895-1975

I-B: Major League programs, 1958-1999

II: Postcards

II-A: Postcards of baseball venues

II-A-1: Major League Venues

II-A-2: Spring Training Venues

II-A-3: Other venues, minor leagues, semi-pro, Little League, etc.

II-B: Non-baseball venues

II-C: Players and managers

II-D: Teams

II-D-1: Major League teams

II-D-2: Non-Major League teams

II-E: Miscellaneous postcards

III: Sheet Music, 1908-1984

IV: Advertising

V: Photographs, undated

VI: Miscellaneous publications, undated and 1903, 1950

VII: Ephemera, 1963-1999

Other Finding Aids

Inventory available.