They are scrapbooks filled with newspaper clippings, detailing the larger-than-life figure that was George Herman Ruth.
Photo after photo, story after story… first-hand accounts of one of the first media stars of the 20th century.
And then, a headline that could have been ripped from a 21st century mobile device – one that seemingly predicted the future.
“Ruth Scoring One of His Three Home Runs Shown in Photos Sent By Phone” –New York Evening World, Oct 7, 1926
Below the headline, three photos – taken Oct. 6, 1926 in St. Louis, Mo., during Game 4 of the World Series. The miracle of modern technology had allowed the transmission of those images across the country via telephone lines, showing readers in New York City what Ruth had done the previous day.
It’s the kind of history that can only be found in Cooperstown at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. But starting today, these and other pieces will be available to fans and researchers around the world through the Hall of Fame’s Digital Archive Project.
Twenty-five volumes of 10 different Babe Ruth Scrapbooks in the collection will be available online for the first time. These one-of-a-kind scrapbooks, created by Ruth’s agent Christy Walsh, provide a unique look at Ruth’s career through letters, stories and photographs, and give a glimpse at the authentic Babe Ruth.
Additional digitized material – including photos, audio, video and text – from the Museum collection will be published every other Wednesday as the Museum adds to the PASTIME (Public Archive System To Interact with the Museum Electronically) online collection, which is available at collection.baseballhall.org.
The Ruth Scrapbooks are filled with unique images (Ruth saluting General John J. Pershing after The Babe was sworn in as a private to the 104th Field Artillery of the New York National Guard), news (Ruth’s famous “bellyache” in April of 1925 is documented in page after page of stories) and the vernacular of the day (each time Ruth was subjected to surgery, he went “under the knife” according to the headline writers).