The Boys of Summer: Baseball All-Stars in the archives display available for viewing at the National Archives.
As Kansas City welcomes the All-Stars of today, the National Archives shares with you All-Stars of the past. Visitors to the National Archives at Kansas City can view a new special display of photographs and facsimile documents titled The Boys of Summer: Baseball All-Stars in the Archives. The display is located in the main hallway on the concourse (lower) level near the School House to White House exhibition.
The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game was held at Comiskey Park in Chicago on July 6, 1933. Kansas City has hosted the “Midsummer Classic” two times—the first on July 11, 1960, at Municipal Stadium and again on July 24, 1973, at Royals Stadium. Kansas City will once again welcome the “Boys of Summer” to Kauffman Stadium on July 10, 2012, for the 83rd All-Star Game.
During the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, baseball was the most widely played sport in the United States and became known as “America’s game.” It is no surprise, then, to find records relating to the game itself and some of the game’s greatest players—Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle, and more—in the holdings of the National Archives.
From military records to photographs with American Presidents to Federal court cases, the National Archives preserves forever the game of baseball and its star players’ interactions with the United States government.
The display will be available for viewing through the baseball season.
The National Archives at Kansas City is one of 15 facilities nationwide where the public has access to Federal archival records. It is home to historical records dating from the 1820s to the 1990s created or received by Federal agencies in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
