Base ball section from the 1875 Ward B. Snyder’s Catalogue

SOURCE: Ward B. Snyder’s Catalogue of Gymnasium Goods, Air Guns, etc., 1875, pages 5-29.

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UPDATED AND CORRECTED information, thanks to David Harris, a relative of the Snyders.

Ward B. Snyder was the brother of W. Irving Snyder of Peck & Snyder, the giant sporting goods and amusements firm which began around 1866 in New York City. Peck was Andrew Peck. Baseball card collectors know this firm because they published cards of the famous 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings. Tennis shoe historians know that Peck & Snyder introduced the first modern canvas and rubber sporting shoe. Magic lantern collectors know all about Peck & Snyder's role in popularizing this home amusement. In 1888 Irving traveled around the world with his friend Albert G. Spalding and two baseball teams to promote baseball. Peck & Snyder was parcially bought out by Spalding in 1894 and at that time no longer made or sold baseball equipment. They left their mark on 19th century America.

So why did brother Ward B. Snyder publish a catalogue of sporting goods and amusements under his own name around 1875? This is still a mystery. Perhaps a brother's competitive spirit? Mr. Harris writes, "Ward B. Snyder was the younger brother of Washington Irving Snyder as near as I have been able to determine the 1875 is the only year he was in the sporting good bussiness. I assume may of his products came from the larger Peck & Snyder company. Like the Peck & Snyder dead ball. In 1874 Peck & Snyder sold 2000 dozen 'Professional Dead Balls' at a price of $15.00 per dozen. We know that in 1876 Ward was not in the sportinggoods bussiness as we have records showing he went into steam engine buisness at that time."

The VBBA is fortunate to have been loaned an 1875 Ward B. Snyder catalogue. The first surviving page is 5, and it advertises Snyder’s base balls. The baseball section continues through page 29, an indication of the prominence of Snyder’s baseball goods. All the pages are hand-colored, and therefore, the even pages are blank, so presumably only pages 1 and 3 are missing from this copy (perhaps a title page and contents page?). The original pages have yellowed. In this digitization, color correction has attempted to reveal the true colors applied to the engraved illustrations. However, page 5 has been exposed to light more than the inside pages, and it is believed the coloring of the ball has shifted to the dark purple tint we see today. Most likely it originally depictes a red ball, which was probably a dark shade typical of leather. Snyder was not advertising a white base ball with this illustration.

George W. Hill’s patent bats are a curiosity. An earlier VBBA project searched early baseball patents, and Hill’s spring bat was located in the online patent papers (it is actually the earliest patent found, dated October 30, 1866). However, the other Hill patent fluted bat, was not located in the online patents. It is also curious that a bat patented in 1866 is still being sold in 1875. Surplus?

CONTENTS

Page 5 - 14 models of base balls (illus. of professional dead ball)

Page 7 - 6 basic models of bats in choices of wood, length and finish (illus.)

Page 9 - ball player illustration

Page 11 - shirts and pants

Page 13 - ball player illustration

Page 15 - 6 models of base ball hats (illus.)

Page 17 - 8 models of base ball caps (illus.)

Page 19 - 6 models of jockey-shaped base ball caps (illus.)

Page 21 - 4 models of English worsted belts (illus.)

Page 23 - English and American web belts (illus.)

Page 25 - shoes and spikes (illus.)

Page 27 - 8 models of stockings to be work with knee-pants (illus.)

Page 29 - bases, foul flags and books

Revised and corrected 2 May 2005.