schoolboy journal references base ball (1 Ergebnisse)

Hardcover. Zustand: Fair. Small quarto. Contains approximately 50 manuscript pages numbered in ink: (9-60). The first nine manuscript pages (9-17) are pasted over with clippings, with additional clippings on the final leaf and back pastedown. Quarter leather and marbled paper over boards, printed green glazed paper label on front cover: "Daily Journal, 1860" and "Calendar for 1860" printed on front pastedown. Early owner's name "Robert Clark" in ink on front pastedown. The first four leaves have been removed, text block is shaken at the spine, final leaf is detached, front pastedown and two manuscript pages are glue stained, else about good overall, with most manuscript pages (18-60) fully legible throughout. A schoolboys' journal containing three or four series of manuscript entries by three young siblings from Cohoes, New York (Robert, John, and James Clark), with a few additional entries and jottings. The first narrative sequence of entries (partly covered over with clippings), dates from circa 1860-67. It is comprised mostly of notes on various subjects spanning pages (9-40). A second parallel narrative written in blue and brown ink, is a sequence of diary entries spanning the months June-August 1865. It consists of about 20pp. (16-41). This series of daily diary entries were written by a sixteen-year-old Clark brother. Among his entries are accounts of working at various jobs out and about Cohoes, New York (including a cotton mill and paper mill), swimming in the "Western canal" (presumably part of the Erie canal), a trip to New York City (where he visits Barnum's Museum), attending military parades, etc., and of his decision to join the local militia. Of particular interest are his accounts of playing baseball and attending baseball games. Here for example is his entry from Saturday, June 24, 1865: "I have been to work to day at Mr. Brockway's [and elsewhere] After supper saw a base ball match between the Quicksteps and Eagles, the Eagles got beat & after that went in swimming in the Western canal." Of the Quicksteps, little is known. A club known as the "Eagles" was formed in New York in 1850. On July 22, 1865 he writes: "I saw a ball match played to day between the Excelsiors and the Bushwackers. The score stood 22 to 42, the Excelsiors were ahead, they played for a $1.25 ball " This could be a reference to the Brooklyn Excelsiors, a popular baseball team formed in Brooklyn in 1854. Of the Bushwackers, little is known. An interesting and by turns engrossing journal containing several first-hand accounts of schoolboys growing up in one of New York's leading industrial towns, including entries documenting the rise of amateur baseball clubs during the 1860s.