(Radio Iowa) – Baseball lovers and history buffs will get a double-play in Des Moines next week. Hoyt Sherman Place will host an extensive exhibit of rare Iowa baseball artifacts with a special presentation by a state historian. Anna Cramer, the venue’s development director, says the display in the art gallery will include Iowa’s oldest known baseball card, and an 1866 diary from the Mount Pleasant Hawkeyes, believed to be the oldest known piece of Iowa baseball memorabilia.
“In the exhibit, we’ll have memorabilia, pictures, knowledgeable docents,” Cramer says. “We’ll have a table for each one of Iowa’s Baseball Hall of Famers, and it’ll just be a great way to learn about the history of baseball, how it came to Iowa, and some pretty cool connections with Hoyt Sherman Place.” The one-day exhibit will include hundreds of baseball cards featuring Iowans, some whom went to “the show” and scores of lesser-known players. To date, Cramer says 227 Iowans have played in the major leagues.
“There are seven Iowa Hall of Famers in Cooperstown, so we will have a table dedicated to each of those. We have some great poster boards with information and then docents from across Iowa and a couple from across the country that are really knowledgeable about baseball as well,” Cramer says. “There’ll be someone at each table and they can give you really detailed information about each of the Hall of Famers from Iowa.”
The game of baseball has its origins in the Civil War, as it spread rapidly through military camps. Soldiers learned the game during downtime, carried it between encampments, and brought it home after the war. “The Civil War was the reason that a lot of people found out about baseball,” Cramer says. “It was when they were playing it in the war and then they brought it back to their respective states, and so that’s really how it came to Iowa.”
The exhibit will be open from noon to 5 P-M on Wednesday, while the presentation, “Baseball’s Origins: The Civil War’s Role in Spreading the Game to Iowa,” begins at 7 P-M. The presenter is historian John Liepa (LEE-ah-pah), a Professor Emeritus of History and Political Science at Des Moines Area Community College. Admission to the exhibit and presentation are free, thanks to funding through Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for Humanities.
