The following is a guest post by Jan Grenci, Reference Specialist for Posters in the Prints and Photographs Division – as well as a long-suffering Pittsburgh Pirates fan.
For almost as long as the game has been played, baseball imagery has been used to advertise a wide variety of products. These items from the Prints and Photographs Division are in a league of their own!
Would the well-dressed fan be grandstanding if he or she wore these hat bands and collars to a game?
No one would be caught flat-footed if they were polkaing to these tunes:
From out of left field come these ads for pest extermination:
And finally, these two posters advertising the game itself cover all the bases:
![[Stock poster showing runner sliding past catcher] Chromolithograph by Strobridge Lith. Co., c1897. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.09337](http://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/files/2018/08/09337v.jpg)
Ultimately, I don’t know if any of these ads were a hit or if they struck out with consumers, but they sure are fun to look at!
Learn More:
- Explore prints related to baseball in the Popular Graphic Arts Collection in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.
- View over 2,000 early baseball cards, dating from 1887 to 1914, in the fully digitized Benjamin K. Edwards Collection. Read more about the background and scope of the collection.
- Explore the online components of the Library of Congress exhibit: Baseball Americana. The exhibit will be on display in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress until Summer 2019.
Comments
Very cool post – wonderful images! Thanks!