"Roy Campanella Baseball Hero" Comic Book, 1950
From the collection of Stephen Schlein
The Glory Days: New York Baseball 1947-1957 exhibit ran at the
Museum of the City of New York from June 27 to December 31, 2007. The decade between 1947 and 1957 was the golden age of baseball in New York City. With three major league teams—the Yankees, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the New York Giants—at least one of whom played in the World Series every year except 1948; two National League teams in an intense rivalry each season; and seven landmark subway series, New York was the undisputed baseball capital of the nation. But more than that, New Yorkers lived and experienced baseball in their town in a way never to be repeated again. This exhibit explores how and why New York City came to dominate the sport, how this changed by 1957, and how the events of these eleven seasons shaped today’s game. In addition, the exhibition uses baseball as a lens through which city life in the post-war years is examined, and contextualizes baseball’s dominance in the history of the city.
The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY), founded in 1923 to present the history of New York City and its people, fills an imposing 5-floor brick and limestone building on the Museum Mile section of Fifth Avenue, between 103rd and 104th Streets. The Museum was originally housed in Gracie Mansion until this Neo-Georgian-Colonial style was built to the design of Joseph J. Freedlander from 1928-1930. The museum's collections include paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs featuring New York City and its residents, as well as costumes, decorative objects and furniture, toys, rare books and manuscripts, marine and military collections, police and fire collections, and a theater collection.
