Rediscover forgotten basketball history this spring at the New-York Historical Society
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Monday, October 14, 2024


Rediscover forgotten basketball history this spring at the New-York Historical Society
Vintage leather and canvas basketball shoes, ca. 1910s. Leather, canvas. Courtesy of the Black Fives Foundation.



NEW YORK, NY.- A new exhibition at the New-York Historical Society celebrates a forgotten era in sports history. On view from March 14 through July 20, 2014, The Black Fives explores the pioneering African-American basketball teams that existed in New York City and elsewhere from the early 1900s through 1950, the year the National Basketball Association became racially integrated.

Soon after the game of basketball was invented in 1891, teams were often called “fives” in reference to their five starting players. Teams made up entirely of African-American players were referred to as “colored fives,” “Negro fives,” or “black fives,” and the period became known as the Black Fives Era. From its amateur beginnings, dozens of all-black professional teams emerged during the Black Fives Era in New York City, Washington, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Chicago, and other cities with a substantial African-American population.

A collaborative partnership between the New-York Historical Society and the Black Fives Foundation, the exhibition is as much about the forward progress of black culture as a whole as it is about the history of basketball. The Black Fives is drawn primarily from the Foundation’s collection and features artifacts, memorabilia, photographs, ephemera and other historical materials from the Black Fives Era. The exhibition is organized by guest curator Claude Johnson, a historian and author who is the founder and executive director of the Black Fives Foundation, and coordinating curator Stephen Edidin, Chief Curator & Curator of American & European Art of the New-York Historical Society.

Highlights of The Black Fives include archival images of the earliest African American basketball teams, including the Alpha Physical Culture Club, the nation’s first all-black athletic club (1912); the New York Girls, the first all-black female team (1910); and team photos of the New York Renaissance (also known as the “Harlem Rens”), Smart Set Athletic Club, Harlem Globetrotters, and the Washington Bears.

Among the exhibition’s unique pieces are a 1914 gold-leafed basketball medallion promoting the St. Christopher Club of Harlem; a 1937 New York Renaissance vs. Oshkosh All Stars game ticket stub; and a complete collection of event programs for the World’s Championship of Professional Basketball played from 1939-1948 and won by three different African American teams.

The Black Fives also features vintage African American basketball ephemera, such as newspaper broadsheets and clippings, scrapbooks, game placards and flyers, such as a 1943 official souvenir program for the “5th Annual World’s Championship Basketball Tournament”; a 1912 “Pittsburgh vs. New York” advertisement for the Annual Christmas Basketball Games and Dance of the Alpha Physical Culture Club; and a 1946 placard promoting “The Game of the Century, Renaissance vs. New Britain Pros.”

An assortment of antique team equipment on view includes leather and canvas basketball shoes typical of those used in the 1910s, buckle-front shorts, leather & wool basketball knee pads, and vintage laced leather basketballs.










Today's News

March 17, 2014

Shown for the first time outside Italy, The Treasure of San Gennaro opens at Musée Maillol

Colombian artist Fernando Botero says in interview he is 'not obsessed with fat women'

Dissident artist Ai Weiwei asks China president Xi Jinping to visit his Berlin exhibition

Priosphenodon minimus: Argentinean paleontologists discover a new species of dinosaur-era reptile

Exhibition celebrates 100th anniversary of journey to Tunisia by Klee, Macke and Moilliet

Oklahoma City Museum of Art announces exhibitions by Brett Weston and Ansel Adams

From Blair to Bonham-Carter: The Lowry exhibits Jonathan Yeo's portraits of performance and power

Time-based Media Art from the Julia Stoschek Collection on view at ZKM in Karlsruhe

Auschwitz acquires stamps used to tattoo prisoners at the infamous death camp

The Museum of Modern Art presents a retrospective of American artist Robert Heinecken

Sculptural installations and interventions by Maria Nepomuceno on view at Victoria Miro

Paintings and drawings from the 1980s by Gunar Örn Gunnarsson on view at Moeller Fine Art

War, the latest visitor to one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world: Palmyra

German Contemporary artist Andre Butzer opens exhibition at Carbon 12 in Dubai

Present Perfect? Contemporary photography from Iran exhibition opens at QUAD, Derby

Ryan Gander exhibist new works at 2 Willow Road

Rediscover forgotten basketball history this spring at the New-York Historical Society

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria appoints BC Architects to revamp Moss Street Gallery

Haggerty Museum spring 2014 exhibitions highlight materialism and consumer culture

Exhibition of paintings by Jorge Queiroz opens at VeneKlasen/Werner in Berlin

Rafael Vega "Recent Works" opens at Walter Otero Contemporary Art in San Juan

Solo exhibition by conceptual artist Abdulnasser Gharem opens at Ayyam Gallery Dubai




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful