2022 SABR Southern New England 19th Century Baseball Interdisciplinary Symposium
SABR’s Nineteenth Century Committee, Lajoie-Start Chapter, and the Rhode Island College’s Department of History present the Southern New England 19cBB Interdisciplinary Symposium, which took place on Saturday, November 12, 2022, in Providence, Rhode Island.
The event was held at Rhode Island College’s John Lincoln Alger Hall, 600 Library Road, Providence, RI 02908.
The symposium was highlighted by a welcome address from author Ed Achorn (Fifty-Nine in ’84), a keynote address from Morgan Grefe, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Historical Society, an interdisciplinary talk by Elizabeth Williams of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, plus research presentations by Robert Cvornyek, Howard Chudacoff, Lauren Tuiskula, and Rick Harris.
After a general group welcome from Bob Bailey, Peter Mancuso, Len Levin, and moderator Doug Stark, award-winning author Edward Achorn opened the session speaking about Old Hoss Radbourn and his book, Fifty-Nine in ’84. Howard Chudacoff from Brown University then gave a presentation on baseball at the school in the 19th century.
Rhode Island Historical Society executive director Morgan Grefe gave a keynote address that encompassed several eye-opening topics of general life during 19th-century times in Providence, including housing, work availability and conditions, immigration, inventions and business finance. Most of the non-baseball history centered on Providence and Rhode Island.
Elizabeth Williams, curator of the Decorative Arts and Design department at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, enlightened SABRites on “The Gorham Silver Company: Winning designs for the Victors.” Gorham Silver Manufacturing lasted from 1831 to 1967 and Williams showed dozens of fascinating artifacts that Gorham was involved with creating, including the grandiose and still “missing” Helen Dauvray Cup given to baseball’s champions of the late 1880s and ’90s.
Lauren Tuiskula, Content Manager of GIST Sports, spoke about “Frank Bancroft and the Blackstone Valley Legacy.” After playing, the multi-talented Bancroft was involved in baseball management for decades in the Blackstone Valley, which runs from Worcester, Massachusetts, to Providence.
Finishing up the day’s proceedings was Lajoie-Start Chapter stalwart Rick Harris, the acknowledged expert on 19th-century Rhode Island ballparks. He displayed his informational spreadsheet and charts with more than 450 ballparks that he has painstakingly located and described for future hunters.
The 2022 Southern New England 19th Century Baseball Interdisciplinary Symposium was the sixth in our city-specific series. Previous symposiums were held in New York City (2014), Philadelphia (2016), Cleveland (2018), Minneapolis (2019), and Brooklyn (2021).
Click here to view a photo gallery at Flickr.com, courtesy of Dixie Tourangeau.
Originally published: November 22, 2022. Last Updated: November 22, 2022.