The Bambino scrapbooks: Portland's HistoryIT digitizes Ruth's storied career
Courtesy / Flickr, Mark Goebel
A selection of Babe Ruth memorabilia at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Babe Ruth: Legendary Boston Red Sox pitcher, record-setting New York Yankees outfielder, American Icon — prolific scrapbook model? Thanks to the Portland-based HistoryIT, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is releasing digital versions of an expansive collection of historic scrapbooks documenting The Bambino’s career.
For decades the 25 volumes and over 1,400 pages of scrapbooks compiled by Christy Walsh, Ruth’s manager, were only available to researchers who made special arrangements to view them at the Cooperstown, N.Y.-based National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
But that changed after HistoryIT founder and CEO, Kristen Gwinn-Becker, and her team spent a year digitizing, describing and tagging materials at the museum, including Ruth’s scrapbooks, to ensure that the museum’s assets are carefully curated and searchable.
The scrapbooks, which document Ruth’s career from 1921 to 1935, include letters, newspapers clippings and photos from Ruth’s career on the field, as well as his work on the stage, television and as an endorser of numerous products.
“As a nonprofit committed to preserving baseball’s history, we wanted to build a 21st century digital collection so fans can be a part of baseball’s history no matter where they are,” Donny Lowe, the Museum’s director of digital strategy, said in a statement. “We partnered with HistoryIT to develop a forward-looking plan enabling us to share our content with anyone in the world.”
HistoryIT also created an interactive exhibit showcasing the first scrapbook, which will be released on Wednesday. In the coming months, rare photos of Jackie Robinson and letters written by Ty Cobb, among numerous other baseball artifacts, will be added to the site.
“It was a privilege to work with a storied institution that values history and recognizes the importance of using technology to save that history for future generations,” Gwinn-Becker said in a statement. “We believe that these materials are just as valuable to the general public as to the scholar and are delighted to have the opportunity to create something that so dramatically broadens the reach of the Hall of Fame’s extraordinary collection.”
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