“The House That Rube Built: The Negro Leagues Centennial”
February 1-March 5, 2020
Wardman Library Lobby, Whittier College, 7031 Founders Hill Road, Whittier, California
“Then Came Rube: The Negro Leagues Centennial”
February 1-February 29, 2020
La Pintoresca Branch Library, 1355 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, California
Greg Jezewski’s “The House That Rube Built,” an artwork commissioned by the Baseball Reliquary, is a highlight of the Wardman Library exhibition.
One of two display cases for the Wardman Library exhibition.
The year 2020 marks the centennial of the founding of the first successful, organized black professional baseball league – the Negro National League, founded by Andrew “Rube” Foster in Kansas City, Missouri on February 13, 1920. Throughout the month of February, the Baseball Reliquary and the Institute for Baseball Studies present two exhibitions which celebrate this milestone anniversary, its powerful story of triumph over adversity, and its inspirational lessons of embracing diversity and inclusion.
From February 1-March 5, 2020, in the Wardman Library Lobby, Whittier College, 7031 Founders Hill Road, Whittier, California, the exhibition “The House That Rube Built: The Negro Leagues Centennial” utilizes artworks, artifacts, and photographs to chronicle the Negro Leagues and the African American experience in baseball. A highlight of the display is the first showing of Greg Jezewski’s “The House That Rube Built,” an artwork commissioned by the Baseball Reliquary. Other artists whose work is featured are Bill Cormalis Jr., Mary Gibney, and Ben Sakoguchi. Also included in the exhibition are player profiles researched and written by Whittier College students enrolled in Joe Price’s JanTerm 2020 course, “The Negro Leagues and American Culture.” Library hours are Monday-Thursday, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 midnight; Friday, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; Sunday, 12:00 noon-12:00 midnight.
La Pintoresca Branch Library exhibition.
From February 1-February 29, 2020, at the La Pintoresca Branch Library, 1355 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, California, the exhibition “Then Came Rube: The Negro Leagues Centennial” utilizes artworks, artifacts, and photographs to chronicle the Negro Leagues and the African American experience in baseball. Featured artists include Bill Cormalis Jr. and Ben Sakoguchi. Also on display in the library’s meeting room is “Eight Ballplayers from the Negro Leagues,” artist Tina Hoggatt’s suite of linocut and letterpress portraits of African American baseball icons. Library hours are Monday-Saturday, 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.; closed Sunday.
Both exhibitions are supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture. For further information, contact the Baseball Reliquary by phone at (626) 791-7647 or by e-mail at terymar@earthlink.net.
