Negro Leagues History Digitized in Museum’s Latest Additions to PASTIME

The latest digitized images range from Hall of Famers and Negro Leagues legends like Cool Papa Bell and Oscar Charleston to portraits taken by groundbreaking Cuban photographer Osvaldo Salas during the 1950s as baseball’s integration movement took hold. The searchable database includes many photos from the Museum’s archive never before published by the Hall of Fame. Smith’s papers, meanwhile, document the call for Major League Baseball to allow African-American players and the story of Robinson’s path to the big leagues.

The next group of materials scheduled to be available on PASTIME beginning 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. The Oct. 19 digitized items will feature images and data from the Museum’s Postseason collection.

As these items are added to PASTIME, fans will be able to explore 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 generations 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 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.