Museum Debuts Online Collections via Hall of Fame Digital Archive Project

Babe Ruth Scrapbooks Unveiled Today through PASTIME Online Collection at baseballhall.org

(COOPERSTOWN, NY) – For more than 75 years, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has been committed to preserving the history of the National Pastime in Cooperstown.

Starting today, thanks to the Hall of Fame Digital Archive Project, 25 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 next group of materials scheduled to be available on PASTIME beginning Sept. 21 will feature items related to Jackie Robinson and the integration of baseball. The third release scheduled for Oct. 5 will include materials related to the first five Hall of Famers elected in 1936: Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner and Ruth. Future releases will include oral histories, additional scrapbooks and Negro League photos.

Many of these materials had previously been available for viewing only by appointment. As these items are added to PASTIME, fans will be able to browse the Museum collection as they plan their visit to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, or continue their exploration of baseball history after they tour the Museum.

With more than three million Library items, a quarter of a million unique images and 40,000 three-dimensional artifacts representing baseball’s illustrious history, the Museum preserves an immense physical collection that brings baseball history to life. Through the Hall of Fame Digital Archive Project, the Museum, over the next several years, will continue to digitize its collections, making PASTIME the online resource for baseball history.

The goal of the Project is to provide online access to the precious artifacts and documents that are preserved in Cooperstown for fans and researchers around the globe, while ensuring that they are digitally archived for future generation of fans. PASTIME will become the online portal for fans and students of the game to relive baseball’s greatest moments through the Museum’s collection.

The PASTIME digital asset management system has been developed on open source standards that will be made available so that other cultural institutions can benefit from this leap forward in digital artifact preservation. Museums and educational institutions around the world will have access to this system built by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

The project is dependent upon the continued generous donations of passionate baseball fans, along with support provided by Market NY through I LOVE NY, New York State’s Division of Tourism, as a part of the State’s Regional Economic Development Council awards.

To support the Hall of Fame Digital Archive Project, please visit collection.baseballhall.org.