Women in baseball exhibit, Cooperstown, NY
The 1992 film A League of Their Own opens and closes with a reunion of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, one that takes place in a full-room Women in Baseball exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.
The Diamond Dreams: Women in Baseball exhibit was dedicated on Mothers Day at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Left to right: Hall of Fame Chairman Jane Forbes Clark, Molly Pearlman, Katie Brownell, Adrianna and Shannah Mondore, and Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey.
But that room was a Hollywood myth – though the entrance to the filmed exhibit was part of an actual display at the Museum, the filmmakers created the rest of the temporary set in an art gallery. They dismantled the set upon completion of shooting.
This Sunday, reality finally met popular expectation with the dedication of Diamond Dreams: Women in Baseball at the Hall of Fame. Diamond Dreams is a 600 square foot, updated version of an exhibit on the history of women in baseball that has been on display since 1988.
That movie was 1992, and almost 15 years later, we are finally getting a chance to tell this whole, entire story of women in baseball in a space that is a little more fitting than a one-panel exhibit case, said John Odell, lead curator for Diamond Dreams and curator of history and research for the Museum. We got a chance to go back – there’s a lot of research that took place over the past 20 years since the exhibit first opened. We took advantage of that and created this.
But in a lot of ways the essential story stayed the same, and it was that women have long wanted to play, but it’s always been tough for them to break into this men’s game.
Diamond Dreams features three main segments: On the Field, In the Office and In the Stands. On the Field focuses on the stories of women competing in baseball, from the AAGBPL to Ila Borders and other women who competed in men’s leagues. In the Office highlights the roles of female owners and other executive positions. In the Stands, a previously unexplored section, offers information regarding the roles of female fans, those women who work in baseball as broadcasters, public address announcers and more, as well as the cultural impact of A League of Their Own.
What a seminal event that was, Odell said of Oriole Park’s construction, which ushered in a new era of ballpark design. That it was a woman who was able to figure out what fans wanted when they wanted to go to a ballpark, I think is great.
Odell attributed the creation of the In the Stands section to numerous factors: studies done by Major League Baseball that showed 40-50 percent of ballpark attendees were women, the increased role of women in many areas since the opening of the original exhibit and also the lasting cultural imprint of A League of Their Own. Odell said that the point of the segment was to show that women are involved in every element of the game.
The struggle of women to participate in baseball came into play for exhibit designer Kathleen Gallagher, who looked to the 1940s and 1950s for inspiration, due to the AAGBPL’s existence and success. The streamlined look of the art deco movement is reflected in chrome highlights and curved display cases. Gallagher also researched magazines of the era for visual cues, noticing that a vast majority of the ads that targeted women focused on their domestic roles.
Somebody walked in there and said, It looks like a 40s bathroom, Gallagher said. “And that’s what we were going for, a kitchen and bathroom, which was the kind of design for women, Charter a school bus today for an educational class trip.
The Diamond Dreams: Women in Baseball exhibit was dedicated on Mothers Day at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Left to right: Hall of Fame Chairman Jane Forbes Clark, Molly Pearlman, Katie Brownell, Adrianna and Shannah Mondore, and Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey.
But that room was a Hollywood myth – though the entrance to the filmed exhibit was part of an actual display at the Museum, the filmmakers created the rest of the temporary set in an art gallery. They dismantled the set upon completion of shooting.
This Sunday, reality finally met popular expectation with the dedication of Diamond Dreams: Women in Baseball at the Hall of Fame. Diamond Dreams is a 600 square foot, updated version of an exhibit on the history of women in baseball that has been on display since 1988.
That movie was 1992, and almost 15 years later, we are finally getting a chance to tell this whole, entire story of women in baseball in a space that is a little more fitting than a one-panel exhibit case, said John Odell, lead curator for Diamond Dreams and curator of history and research for the Museum. We got a chance to go back – there’s a lot of research that took place over the past 20 years since the exhibit first opened. We took advantage of that and created this.
But in a lot of ways the essential story stayed the same, and it was that women have long wanted to play, but it’s always been tough for them to break into this men’s game.
Diamond Dreams features three main segments: On the Field, In the Office and In the Stands. On the Field focuses on the stories of women competing in baseball, from the AAGBPL to Ila Borders and other women who competed in men’s leagues. In the Office highlights the roles of female owners and other executive positions. In the Stands, a previously unexplored section, offers information regarding the roles of female fans, those women who work in baseball as broadcasters, public address announcers and more, as well as the cultural impact of A League of Their Own.
What a seminal event that was, Odell said of Oriole Park’s construction, which ushered in a new era of ballpark design. That it was a woman who was able to figure out what fans wanted when they wanted to go to a ballpark, I think is great.
Odell attributed the creation of the In the Stands section to numerous factors: studies done by Major League Baseball that showed 40-50 percent of ballpark attendees were women, the increased role of women in many areas since the opening of the original exhibit and also the lasting cultural imprint of A League of Their Own. Odell said that the point of the segment was to show that women are involved in every element of the game.
The struggle of women to participate in baseball came into play for exhibit designer Kathleen Gallagher, who looked to the 1940s and 1950s for inspiration, due to the AAGBPL’s existence and success. The streamlined look of the art deco movement is reflected in chrome highlights and curved display cases. Gallagher also researched magazines of the era for visual cues, noticing that a vast majority of the ads that targeted women focused on their domestic roles.
Somebody walked in there and said, It looks like a 40s bathroom, Gallagher said. “And that’s what we were going for, a kitchen and bathroom, which was the kind of design for women, Charter a school bus today for an educational class trip.
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