American Historical Ephemera & Photography, Featuring Property from the James Milgram, M.D., Collection of Broadsides, Ephemeral Americana & Historical Documents

Visible 10 5/16 x 26 7/8 in. (exceptional color, minor separations along original folds); matted and framed to 16 1/8 x 33 in. (not examined out of frame). 

A color lithograph advertising a baseball game between Holy Cross College and Fordham on 10 May 1888 at 3:30 P.M. at Ward Street Grounds in Hartford, CT. The broadside features a player at bat wearing a white and sky blue uniform with the opposing team's catcher readied behind wearing red and Prussian blue. 

College baseball began on 1 July 1859 in a matchup between Amherst and Williams Colleges played under Massachusetts rules with no foul zone. The first game played under modern rules was played later that year on 3 November between St. Francis Xavier College and St. John's College Fordham Rose Hill Baseball Club (now Fordham University), one of the teams featured on this broadside. For the majority of the late 19th century, most teams and organizations were student-run affairs making this professionally printed poster in color more remarkable. The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, organized on 24 March 1888 is the oldest athletic conference in the United States, the Big Ten would follow in 1896, and the NCAA would not be formed until 1905.