Rediscover an American Past Time With 'Baseball's Magna Carta'

The Oregon Historical Society will be running an exhibit until October 16 called Baseball’s Magna Carta: Setting the Rules of America’s Game. It's free for members of OHS to attend, and discounts are offered to teachers and seniors.

The exhibit marks the first time that these original documents will be displayed for the public to see. The documents, hand-written and first crafted in 1857, describe in detail some of the fundamentals of the game.

These papers are getting what OHS calls 'unprecedented special attention'- that is to say, the significant weight that these documents carry in terms of the history of baseball as a sport, and its history in America, are fundamental to historians who study the sport.

Moreover, this exhibit makes an important correction to a common misconception in the history of American baseball. The exhibit names Daniel "Doc" Adams as the official father to the game, and not Abner Double Day, as was the common understanding among baseball enthusiasts.

One document in particular, entitled "Laws of Base Ball' established some of the basic, regulated rules of the game. It's easiest to think of these measurements in segments of 9: number of players on each team, duration of the game, in innings, and distance between base lines, 90 feet. Despite being made in 1857, these measurements are still applied to the game today.

The exhibit features the stories of different kinds of baseball players, including women, people of color, and people of different races and ethnicity. Baseball truly is an American past time-the photos below highlight the unifying nature of the sport.

The Oregon Historical Society, located at 1200 SW Park Avenue in Portland, is family-friendly option for an afternoon outing. Need help finding your way there? Not a problem. Find directions to the society. The museum is open Monday-Saturday, 10 A.M. to 5 P.M and Sunday from 12-5 P.M

Images via Oregon Historical Society