The founding
document of Major League Baseball:
one of two known copies
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(BASEBALL)
Constitution and Playing Rules of the National League. Philadelphia:
Reach & Johnston, 1876. Octavo, original printed wrappers, 48
pp, (10.5 x 16 cm). Fine condition. Please inquire.
First
printing of the first National League publication (Grobini, 3-8; Smith,
6566), the founding document of Major League Baseball, issued just months
before the first season of play. The size of the print run is
unknown, though internal evidence suggests that it could be as small as
just 200 copies. There is
just one other recorded surviving copy of this fragile item, which is on
display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. This,
the founding document of Major League Baseball, is a central piece of
Americana, inaugurating an institution that would come to be a defining
aspect of American culture. Fine condition by any standards, in a
remarkable state of preservation.
For
information concerning the recent acquisition by the National Library of
Canada of the constitution for Canadian baseball (also one of two known
copies), please click
here. |
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From page 41 of the
Constitution:
“It
was agreed by and between all the clubs, members of the League, that all
existing contracts between them (the League clubs) and players should be
recognized by the League as if made under and according to the
requirements of the Constitution of the “National League of Professional
Base Ball Clubs.”
On
motion, it was resolved that the first annual meeting of this League
should be held at Cleveland, Ohio, on the date called for in the
Constitution.
The
Secretary was instructed to send twenty-five copies of the Constitution
and Playing Rules to each member of the League, when printed.” –M.G.
Bulkeley, President; Harry Wright, Secretary, pro tem.
“By
the authority vested in me by virtue of the above resolution, I hereby
certify that Messrs. Reach & Johnston of Philadelphia, Pa., have been
granted the exclusive right to publish the official book containing the
Constitution and Playing Rules of the National League of Professional Base
Ball Clubs, as revised and adopted at a meeting held at the Grand Central
Hotel, in the city of New York, on the 2d of February, A.D. 1876, and that
the foregoing is a true copy of the same.” —N.E. Young,
Secretary
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First printing of the
first National League publication (Grobini, 3-8; Smith, 6566), the
founding document of Major League Baseball, issued just months before the
first season of play. The size of the print run is unknown, though
internal evidence suggests that it could be as small as just 200 copies.
There is just one other recorded surviving copy of this fragile
item, which is on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in
Cooperstown, NY. This, the founding document of Major League Baseball, is
a central piece of Americana, inaugurating an institution that would come
to be a defining aspect of American culture. Fine condition by any
standards, in a remarkable state of preservation.
For information
concerning the recent acquisition by the National Library of Canada of the
constitution for Canadian baseball (also one of two known copies), please click
here. |
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