1862.104

Chronologies
	Prominent Milestones
	Ancient - 1700 1701 - 1780 1781 - 1815 1816 - 1830 1831 - 1845 1846 - 1850 1851 - 1855 1856 - 1860 1861 - 1865 1866 - 1876
	Misc BB Firsts
	Add a Misc BB First
	About the Chronology
	Tom Altherr Dedication
	Add a Chronology Entry
	Open Queries
	Open Numbers
	Most Aged

Ballplaying Featured on 1862 Letterhead for Camp Doubleday

Salience

Peripheral

Tags

Drawing, Famous

City/State/Country:

United States

Immediacy of Report

Contemporary

Age of Players

Adult

Text

"Abner Doubleday has become a joke among us baseball folks. ("He didn't invent baseball; baseball invented him.") This letterhead, from 1862, may give pause even to hardened skeptics."

Sources

John Thorn, Tweet on 2/2/22. John notes that the game depicted does not resemble base ball, or wicket, or cricket.

Comment

Camp Doubleday is described in an 1896 source as "just outside Brooklyn city limits."

https://museum.dmna.ny.gov/unit-history/artillery/5th-heavy-artillery-regiment/prison-pens-south

David Block suggests the drawing shows Drive ball, a fungo game: see Baseball Before We Knew It (University of Nebraska Press, 2005), page 198.

Edit with form to add a comment

Query

Edit with form to add a query

Source Image