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The Baseball Hall of Fame was established in Cooperstown, New York, in 1939. Cooperstown is a small town in central New York state with only about 2,300 residents. There is a unique history behind the Hall of Fame. In a farmhouse in Fly Creek, N.Y., a town about three miles from Cooperstown, an old baseball was found in a dust-covered attic trunk – undersized and obviously home made. The cover had been torn open, revealing stuffing of cloth instead of the wool and cotton yarn which comprise the interior of the modern baseball; but it had a stitched cover. This ball was traced all the way back to 1839.

Recently after this discovery, the baseball was purchased for $5.00 by a Cooperstown resident philanthropist by the name of Stephen C. Clark, who had amassed considerable wealth through his association with the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Clark had a vision of displaying the baseball, along with other such baseball memorabilia he could obtain, in a room in the Village Club, which now houses the Cooperstown village offices. The small one-room exhibit brought in incredible public interest. Along with the assistance of Alexander Cleveland, who had been associated with Clark in other activities, support was sought after for the establishment of a National Baseball Museum. Ford Frick, president of the National League at the time, was very intrigued by the idea. He attained the backing of Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Baseball's first commissioner, and William Harridge, president of the American League. Priceless collectibles and baseball memorabilia soon flooded Cooperstown from all parts of the country.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was officially dedicated in on June 12, 1939. The game's four ranking executives of the period—Landis, Frick, Harridge and William G. Bramham, President of the National Association, participated in the ribbon-cutting. Of the 25 who had been elected to the Hall of Fame up to that point, 11 were still living; and all of them traveled to Cooperstown to attend the centennial celebration and to commemorate the Hall of Fame.

Annual attendance at the Hall of Fame and Museum usually approaches 350,000 and twice has exceeded 400,000 attendees. The shrine is open year round, and during July and August it is not unusual for the daily admission count to top Cooperstown's population. The largest population occurs during Hall of Fame Weekend when the newly-elected members are inducted.

For more information, please visit:

www.BaseballHallofFame.org