Lou Newman Collection of Baseball Memorabilia

Provenance: Mr. Louis 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.

Summary: 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.

Type: Collection descriptions; Archival materials; Sheet music; Tickets; Programs; Advertisements; Posters; Ephemera; Photographs

Citation: Lou Newman Collection of Baseball Memorabilia, 1895-1999, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Processing Information: Collection processed by Cathy Keen, October 2000. Michael Benson's Ballparks of North America (McFarland and Co., 1989) was used as a reference guide for the postcards of baseball parks and venues. Former Major League Teams: An Encyclopedia by Donald D. Jones (McFarland and Co., 1997) was used as a reference guide for postcards on teams. The Official Encyclopedia of Baseball (4th Revised Edition) by Hy Turkin and S.C. Thompson (A.S. Barnes and Company) was also used as a reference.

Rights: Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Genre/Form: Sheet music; Tickets; Programs; Advertisements -- 20th century; Posters -- 20th century; Ephemera -- 1890-2000; Photographs -- 19th century

Scope and Contents: The archival collection is divided into seven series: Series 1: Team Programs, 1895-1999, mostly minor leagues; Series 2: 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 3: Sheet Music, 1908-1984, entirely on the subject of baseball; Series 4: 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 5: Photographs, mostly black and white portraits of major league players; Series 6: Miscellaneous Publications, undated and 1903, 1950, including a comic book, a short story magazine and a theater program; and Series 7: Ephemera, consisting entirely of ticket stubs.

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