NPM baseball exhibit reopens with new items on display

By Linn’s Staff

The March 25 reopening of the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum’s exhibition “Baseball: America’s Home Run” brings new objects and artifacts on display, a March 23 press release said.

Daniel Piazza, chief curator of the museum, said: “Dozens of new objects, including the original art for postage stamps featuring Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle, are paired with their game-worn uniforms and other memorabilia to evoke the game’s greatest moments.”

Uniforms, equipment and other artifacts have been loaned by other Smithsonian museums, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, law enforcement agencies and private collections.

Original stamp art, press sheets, letters and first-day covers commemorating baseball legends are shown with the artifacts.

The exhibition includes the approved stamp art for the 33¢ Satchel Paige stamp (Scott 3408p), on loan from the Postmaster General’s Collection at the United States Postal Service. The stamp was issued July 6, 2000, in the Legends of Baseball pane of 20 (3408).

Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige (1906–1982) joined the Cleveland Indians in 1948, and later that year, he and teammate Larry Doby (1923-2003) became the first African American players to win the World Series.

The “Baseball: America’s Home Run” exhibition, presented in English and Spanish, features hundreds of U.S. and international stamps commemorating players and historic moments in baseball.

The exhibition uses the material from the U.S. Postal Service’s Postmaster General’s Collection to approach “the story of baseball from a unique, worldwide perspective,” the press release said.

Located at 2 Massachusetts Ave. NE on Capitol Hill, the National Postal Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Admission is free.

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