SPORTS

Boxes 26-28

(473 items)
Among the sheet music devoted to sports there is a fine baseball collection which begins with the first instrumental music published about baseball in 1858, "The Baseball Polka". There are in addition numerous illustrations relating to baseball from the 1860s, including the fine "The Live Oak Polka", published in Rochester in 1860. There is other material showing pictures of baseball stars of the past, beginning with all the members of the Cincinnati Reds in 1869, the first all-professional team, and continuing with both group and individual photographs of baseball celebrities.

A large section is devoted to football with songs of many of the great teams of the past from Michigan, Wisconsin, Yale, Harvard and Princeton. Many pieces relate to skating and sleighing. Another large section is devoted to boating, chiefly sculling. One of the popular songs of William Clifton, a prominent song writer of the day, was "Our Boat Sets Lightly On The Wave", illustrated in one edition by Nathaniel Currier. There are songs concerning shooting and hunting and fishing. Two amusing ones are "Going Out A Shooting" and "When We Were Out A Fishing". The covers of both of these songs were illustrated by George Endicott. The "JHU Lacrosse Two Step" was dedicated to the Johns Hopkins University Class of 1901.

Other music in this section is devoted to horseback riding, horse racing, golf, tennis, gymnastics, archery, chess, fencing, card playing, billiards, bowling, boxing and croquet.

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