After many years of careful collecting and immersing himself in Indiana’s major league baseball history, Bose McKinney & Evans’ Scott Tarter has turned his pastime into an exciting new exhibit at the Indiana Historical Society (IHS) “Hoosiers Win the Pennant: Indiana Roots of American Baseball.” Tarter is a partner in the Business Services and International Groups of the law firm.
Enjoy a video about Tarter’s collection, which is on display Sept. 9 through Nov. 15, 2014, in the Rose McKee Lanham Gallery at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center. The History Center, home of the IHS, is located at 450 W. Ohio St. in downtown Indianapolis.
The exhibition explores Indiana’s incredible, but little-known, baseball history and the state’s contributions to America’s national pastime. Indiana is not only the site of the first-ever major league baseball game, but has also boasted five major league baseball teams throughout history, including the 1914 Federal League pennant-winning Hoosiers.
For Tarter, doing the research and collecting this memorabilia was more about historical conservation than it was about collecting. “When I first began researching the origins of baseball out of general interest, I was amazed to learn of the important role the state played in the early years of the game’s development. As I looked for surviving artifacts of this history, I saw many situations where important pieces of this story were being jammed into crowded boxes in attics or basements, or sold by sports memorabilia dealers who had no interest in historic preservation. It really motivated me to collect these items and try to preserve them,” Tarter said.
Items include an 1829 English book containing one of the earliest known descriptions of the English game that helped create American baseball and an 1832 pamphlet containing one of the earliest-known printed references to baseball. Also on display are a limited edition reproduction of the first recorded baseball card dating back to 1869, and original 19th-century and early 20th-century baseball cards, photographs, and illustrations.
Guests can also enjoy a look at material connected to the 1871 Fort Wayne Kekiongas, the 1878 National League Indianapolis Blues, the 1884 Indianapolis Hoosiers team that competed against African-American major leaguers before baseball’s color barrier was erected, the Indianapolis Hoosiers who played in the National League between 1887 and 1889, and the 1914 Indianapolis Hoosiers in their pennant-winning year. Materials illustrating the origins and history of today’s Indianapolis Indians also celebrate the roots of the game.
This exhibition is included with each guest’s Indiana Experience admission. For more information on this exhibition, as well as other IHS programs, visit www.indianahistory.org or call (317) 232-1882.
About the Indiana Historical Society
Since 1830, the Indiana Historical Society has been Indiana’s Storyteller, connecting people to the past by collecting, preserving, interpreting and sharing the state’s history. A private, nonprofit membership organization, IHS maintains the nation’s premier research library and archives on the history of Indiana and the Old Northwest and presents a unique set of visitor exhibitions called the Indiana Experience. IHS also provides support and assistance to local museums and historical groups, publishes books and periodicals; sponsors teacher workshops; produces and hosts art exhibitions, museum theater and outside performance groups; and provides youth, adult and family programming. Normal operating hours for the History Center and the Indiana Experience are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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