SABR donates archives of founder Bob Davids to Library of Congress
JANUARY 4, 2023 — SABR is pleased to announce the donation of the L. Robert “Bob” Davids Papers to the Library of Congress. More than 25,000 items from the estate of SABR’s original founder, including documents from the organization’s founding and early operations, are in the collection.
The collection, which spans the years from 1958 until Davids’ death in 2002, was organized and delivered to the Library of Congress by leaders from SABR’s Bob Davids Chapter in Washington, DC, and the Baltimore Babe Ruth Chapter. It includes correspondence, meeting minutes, interviews, self-published manuscripts, baseball manuals, reports, agendas, programs, newsletters, printed matter, photographs, and other papers. The Library of Congress Manuscript Division anticipates that the collection will be cataloged in approximately 18 to 24 months, and later will be available to future researchers.
In 1971, Davids organized a gathering of 16 baseball historians and statisticians at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown, New York, to form the Society for American Baseball Research. The organization has grown into a vibrant, worldwide community with more than 7,300 members today. Davids was elected as the first Board President, and he served as the primary editor for the Baseball Research Journal, SABR Bulletin newsletter, and many other early publications.
Davids also served in the US Navy during World War II, earned his Ph.D. in international relations from Georgetown University, and spent 30 years working for the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and other federal agencies during his career outside of baseball. Click here to learn more about his life and legacy at the SABR BioProject.
Originally published: January 4, 2023. Last Updated: January 3, 2023.