FOR LOGISTICAL INFORMATION ABOUT TRAVEL TO THE MUSEUMS AND TIMES SEE THIS PDF.
Preceding this year’s annual gathering in Washington DC, the NASSH organizing committee will offer two exclusive displays and exhibits on Friday, May 26th. The events will cover two unique displays at two foundational DC locations complete with special features, access, and guided insight for NASSH members run. Running from noon to three in the afternoon (and progressing west to east), these special tours will directly precede the formal opening to the conference at the National Museum of African American History and Culture at four pm.
The first exhibit will take place at the Library of Congress. The Jefferson Room is officially reserved for our gathering. Available for us will be textual archives, images, and other historical ephemera detailing athlete activism, athletes at leisure, and – in a call back to Dan Nathan’s keynote address from our 2022 conference – a collection of sports photography. Highlighting the collection will be a series of baseball gems, including Branch Ricky’s scouting reports and a treasure trove of historic ballpark sheet music. The display has generated sufficient excitement within the capitol that members of Congress and staff have asked to join us! As such, NASSHers will have exclusive access to this specially curated exhibit from noon-1, with Congressional staff and the public joining in from 1-2pm.
Next on our museum tour, we will join curators at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History from 1-3pm for an overview and discussion of its broad sports collections and how they feature in the new long-term exhibit: Entertainment Nation: How Music, Television, Film, Sports, and Theatre shaped the United States. Participants will get an orientation to the exhibit and explore collections in storage based on their interests, with time to further browse the exhibit afterward. Due to the limited space in the storage facilities (5 tour members maximum), we will be offering staggered start times with the possibility of an additional tour slot based on interest.
We are thrilled to be able to offer NASSHers these exclusive opportunities. Even more so, the organizing committee is delighted that members of the United States Congress are equally as enthusiastic about the opportunity to engage in some critical and enjoyable exposure sport history.