Available Works or Citations from Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
This Bobby Smith Basketball card is number 49 in a series of 264 manufactured by the Topps Company Inc. for the 1973-1974 NBA season. The front of the card features a posed picture of the Cleveland Cavaliers forward. The card’s reverse features a small cartoon image illustrating the factoid that “Bobby’s nickname is ‘BINGO’” as well as short biographical sketch…
Poster for the 1937 film Harlem on the Prairie which was billed as the first “all colored” western comedy musical. It starred Herb Jeffries, Spencer Williams, and Mantan Moreland. The film is a contrast to the inaccurate but popular Hollywood images of an all-white American frontier.
Jim Mudcat Grant (1935-2021) was one of many players featured on collectible coins made by Topps and included in packs of baseball cards. A right handed pitcher who played for the Cleveland Indians (1958-64,) Minnesota Twins (1964-67,) Los Angeles Dodgers (1968,) Montreal Expos (1969,) St. Louis Cardinals (1969,) Oakland Athletics (1970,71) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1970-71,) Grant was the first African…
This John Johnson basketball card is number 43 in a series of 264 that was manufactured by the Topps Company Inc. for the 1972-1973 National Basketball Association (NBA) season. The front of the card features a posed picture of the Cleveland Cavaliers forward-guard on a green background. The card’s reverse features a small cartoon image illustrating the factoid that “John…
With a professional baseball career lasting from the jazz age to the space age, Pitcher Leory Robert Satchel Paige (1906-1982) established himself not only as one of the most dominant American athletes of all time, but also one of the most remarkable. Paige thus began his lengthy and nomadic professional baseball career. Records for the various Negro Leage Organizations are…