The two, signed typescript pages that set out the 13 rules were drawn up by the sport's Canadian founder, James Naismith, in 1891....Oh, and by the way...
Naismith had written the rules to set up a new winter sport for boys at a YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he was a physical education teacher.
The school had given him two weeks to come up with a new sport and he finalised it the day before the deadline, pinning the rules on a gym bulletin board.
At the same auction, President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the freedom of slaves held in southern states during the Civil War and was owned by ex-Senator Bobby Kennedy, fetched $3,778,500.But that's not the original handwritten proclamation, which is in the National Archives. The Bobby Kennedy document is "one of 48 printed copies signed by Lincoln." Bobby paid $9,500 in 1964 for $9,500. Who knows how much of the $3,778,500 comes from the infusion of Kennedyosity.
Also at the auction, this guidon:
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See? One should never throw anything out.
Ever so slightly OT: the item Ann pictures is the only guidon recovered from the Sioux after the Little Big Horn. On the page where its sale at auction was mentioned, it was classed under Sports.
How in Hell does an historical artifact end up as Sports memorabilia?
@ edutcher
The left thinks war is just a game?
"On the page where its sale at auction was mentioned, it was classed under Sports. How in Hell does an historical artifact end up as Sports memorabilia?"
The first link doesn't have the part about the flag. It does have the part about the Emancipation Proclamation.
There was a Sotheby's auction, and the rules of basketball were one of the items. More interesting to me, because of the story and the record price.
Click around and you'll learn that the flag had been valued at $5 million. It only brought $2.2 million.
I'm not saying the battle (and the freeing of the slaves) weren't more important than the rules of basketball. But the document, the rules of basketball, is more interesting, because it is the actual original written work of the guy who invented the game and the document that was posted for the first players of the game. So there is more essence of originality in the basketball document. The flag was an ordinary manufactured item, of which there are many, which was distinguished by where it happened to go. The RFK proclamation was made as a replica. If I were a collector, I would put much more value on an item that was the original creation.
Hey Prof --
edutcher was just questioning the classification of the flag.
If I were a collector, I would put much more value on an item that was the original creation.
Me too. But a flag from the Little Big Horn that was captured by the Sioux is pretty cool artifact too.
Ann, I was referring to another article. Your post is OK.
So, is the blog theme of the day "irresistible details"?
I was going to say the emancipation proclamation is further proof of how the Miami Heat stole Lebron James away from the Cavaliers.. But I wont say it because I'll get in trouble.
Aw, baseball and flags, such nicer things to talk about on this fine day rather than death, suicide, and politics.
"If I were a collector, I would put much more value on an item that was the original creation."
Those "possible" blood stains on the flag seem sadly original to me.
FWIW I read that the guidon originally was first sold for the princely sum of $54.00..
wv: traguit (close enough)
Penny said...
"If I were a collector, I would put much more value on an item that was the original creation."
Those "possible" blood stains on the flag seem sadly original to me.
The article I saw said the stains weren't positively identified as blood. Only one other guidon from the Last Stand exists, found under the body of one of the troopers on Custer Hill by the burial details of the 7th Infantry 2 days after the battle. The article said its condition was "nearly dust"; since no one is going to do a CSI analysis on the guidon pictured, I guess we'll never know.
But a flag from the Little Big Horn that was captured by the Sioux is pretty cool artifact too.
It wasn't captured by the Sioux -- it was found hidden under the body of one of Custer's soldiers by a member of the burial party. Whether it was deliberately hidden by the dying soldier is, of course, speculative, but in the 19th century soldiers placed a great deal of value on protecting their flags.
It does look as though a bunch of people clipped souvenirs out of the guidon some time in the past.
@edutcher, hmmm. I had read this article about the guidon which definitively says that there was only one guidon recovered from the Little Big Horn battlefield and this is it.
On the other hand, it's an article in the San Francisco Chronicle so how authoritative could it be?
Mnemorabilia are tricks to remember accompanying facts.
You may not be monitoring the thread, but, in case you are, Mike, the guidon in the photo was captured later that year at Slim Buttes, and may have belonged to Miles Keogh's I Troop.
Is RFK an ex-parrot, too?
@edutcher, I'm just goin' by what I read in the newspapers. That the papers may have misidentified the provenance of the guidon is unsurprising. Esp. the Chronicle.
While Sotheby auctions are fun to read about, and they really are, auctions in general are becoming a bigger part of some American's survival.
Surely I am not the only Althouse reader who has a friend now selling some household goods and even family heirlooms on Ebay or Craigslist.
What's most interesting to me is that they do so with "the spirit of American ingenuity".
They've figured out a damned good way to make some money. Instead of being sad about what they're giving up, they're two-feet-in on getting what they want...now!
So as not to create a fable with my last post...in the spirit of honesty, I need to say that my friends began to find their "American Jesus" when the government reduced or eliminated a monthly check.
Make of that what you will.
who days God doesn't have a sense of humor.
Very neat flag
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