Exhibit Educates Visitors One Baseball Card At A Time
‘Cardboard Fetish’ explores baseball card history from the 19th century to today.
By EGP News Service
One of the items most synonymous with America’s favorite pastime, the baseball card, is the focus of Pasadena Central Library’s new exhibit, “Cardboard Fetish,” that plans to give a sense of history to visitors who walk its halls from now until July 31.
“Cardboard Fetish” is a free exhibit sponsored by the Baseball Reliquary, a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the appreciation of American art and culture through baseball. This latest exhibit explores the history of the baseball card, from its origins in the 19th century as an advertising mechanism for tobacco products to its more recent status as currency, with some cards reaching values in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The exhibit will feature baseball-related works from various artists and will feature “The History of Baseball Card Defacing,” a special display by artist Paul Kurhman, a Pennsylvania-based artist most known for defacing (altering the image, usually by drawing over them) cards since 1979.
A special display called “The History of Baseball Card Defacing” by artist Paul Kurhman will be featured at the Pasadena Central Library’s “Cardboard Fetish” exhibit this month.
In addition to the exhibit, The Baseball Reliquary will induct its 11th class of baseball notables into its Shrine of the Eternals during a special ceremony open to the public. This year’s inductees are Steve Dalkowski, a minor league pitcher known for throwing fastballs at 105 to 110 mph, Jim Eisenreich, a World Series champion with the 1997 Florida Marlins known for being diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome, and Roger Maris, who hit a then record breaking 61 home runs with the New York Yankees during the 1961 season.
Also present at the exhibit will be writers Brendan Boyd (most notably known for writing 1973’s “The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book,” which sparked a baseball card-collecting obsession), Bob Lemke (current editor of the vintage cards section of the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards), and filmmaker Jon Leonoudakis (“5:04 p.m.,” a first-person documentary on Game 3 of the 1989 World Series, in which a 7.1 earthquake disrupted play for 10 days).
“Cardboard Fetish” will be presented at the Pasadena Central Library, 285 E. Walnut Street, Pasadena, California, and will be open through July 31. Exhibit hours are: Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Sunday from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The inductions of the Shrine of the Eternals will take place on July 19 at 2:00 p.m. at the Donald R. Wright Auditorium in the Pasadena Central Library. For more information, call the Pasadena Central Library at (626) 744-4066.
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July 9, 2009 Copyright © 2012 Eastern Group Publications, Inc.
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