19th Century League Documents Project
The 19th Century League Documents Project, organized by SABR’s Nineteenth Century Committee, aims to collect all available pre-1900 baseball documents and make them available online to future researchers. The initial collection includes about 50 documents from the National League’s founding in 1876 to the NL’s final season as a sole major league in 1900. It also includes National Agreements for most seasons, plus American Association Constitutions from 1882 to 1891.
Click on a link below to view or download the documents:
- National Agreements (1883-1900, 16 files)
- National League Constitutions (1876-1900, 25 files)
- American Association Constitutions (1882-1891, 10 files)
Each PDF document includes a typed transcription of the original file with bracketed notes that reference changes from the previous season; this allows viewers to see how the documents evolved from year to year. Each file also includes the name of the source document (such as the annual Spalding Guide) and a permanent URL to the original source if possible.
Some of these documents were rewritten at different points in baseball history. The National Agreements, in some sources, are listed as being rewritten in 1891 in the wake of the Players League and 1892 as the American Association was absorbed into the National League. But the document changed almost yearly in small and large ways as the major league representatives had a specific issue they wanted to address. This is why we post the annual iterations of many documents.
Future additions
There is no limit to the range of league and team documents we will review and potentially add to this collection. This may include pre-professional club constitutions, state association constitutions, National Association (Professional and Amateur branches) Constitutions and related documents, Minor League organizing documents, various set of League Rules and Regulations, etc. This list is not exhaustive.
If you have access to a document not yet posted, please contact Bob Bailey for details. Contributors should prepare and send a Word document with the complete transcription using Times New Roman, 12-pt font. List the document’s name, source of the document, date of document creation, and name of the contributor. Our committee will review the file and decide on whether to add it to this collection.