Jackie Robinson was one of the greatest baseball players ever. His number, 42, has been retired in perpetuity by every team in Major League Baseball. He won the Rookie of the Year award in 1947 when he started playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He would go on to become a six-time all star and was MVP in 1949. And, his most significant accomplishment is that he broke the color barrier becoming the first black Major Leaguer.
Jackie went to U.C.L.A. prior to his baseball career and played a variety of sports while there including football. He is featured in some U.C.L.A. football program from the time, most notably this 1940 program.
He is listed in the program as a 22 year old Jack Robinson from Pasadena. In a small bio included in the program that state that he was a letterman in football, baseball, basketball, and track and led the nation’s gainers last year in his position at halfback with an impressive average of 12.24 yard per play. Below is Robinson pictured in the program. Ironically baseball was Robinson’s worst sport at U.C.L.A., he hit only .097 during his only year playing.
The words of Douglas MacArthur, “Upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that, upon other fields, on other days, will bear the fruits of victory,” are etched on the walls of the gymnasium at West Point.
It was a cadet (Dennis Mahan Michie, a graduate of 1892), who proposed that the Army team play a game against the Naval Academy in 1890. West Point’s field is named after Michie. Omar Bradley (USMA class if 1915) played on the army team during has time at the military academy. His commander in World War II, Dwight Eisenhower also played on the Black Knights and was a starter at linebacker and running back in 1912.
Other famous players for the military academy include Doc Blanchard who was the first junior to win the Heisman Trophy.
The 1979 Army-Navy program shows off the cadet and midshipmen’s flags
The U.S. Naval Academy has just a rich a history, with Roger Staubach leading the way in terms of players who would go on have successful careers in the sport.
While future astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Frank Borman and Michael Collins didn’t play football at the Naval Academy, the 1965 program features them:
When Playboy printed its magazine they did a series of issues dedicated to the “Women of the Ivy League.” This is not our subject today, but instead it is early imagery of young collegiate age females from the turn of the 20th century.
This beautiful set of images below is from 1903 and they are “premium” cards. A common practice at the time was to give out various “cards” or little gifts to entice people to buy your product. Tobacco companies were famous for giving out miniature rugs or little “silks”. Joseph Tetlow was a Philadelphia based manufacturer of perfumes and toilet powders. Their most famous products were the Gossamer and Swan Down powders. These cards were given out as premiums with a Gossmer purchase.
The use of color and the imagery in the cards is spectacular. A full set of the cards issued (there were only four) are seen framed below. Each card measures 6 inches by 4 inches. The Harvard “girls” are about to go out on the lake in a row boat, the Penn girls are playing the newly imported game of golf, the Yale girls look like they just finished a bout of fencing and the Princeton girls are playing basketball.
Original Tetlow cards are difficult to find although sometimes we have reproduction cards. Collectors can tell the original cards from the reproductions because the originals have “Copyright, 1903, Joseph Tetlow” on the bottom left and the reproductions do not.
The maker of the throw pillow seen below is unknown, but it carries on the theme of early collegiate women and is copyrighted from 1905:
Harvard and Penn have more progressive histories regarding female students, whereas Princeton and Yale didn’t admit women until 1969 so the women depicted certainly aren’t students, but idealized Victorian era fans.
The granddaddy of early collegiate illustrators was F. Earl Christy who trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts. His images are iconic, like the Yale women seen below:
We just acquired a lot of old Stanford street signs and became interested in the origin of many of the names. Stanford’s campus took its street names from a variety of sources including early Spanish and Mexican explorers of California, places affiliated with the Gold Rush and from Spanish names.
An invaluable resource in our research was the 2005 work produced by Richard W. Cottle’s in 2005 and published by the university called: Stanford Street Names.
Palo Road took its name from the Spanish for “stick.” It is not far from the famous redwood tree, El Palo Alto, that inspired the name of Leland Stanford’s Palo Alto Farm, and later, of the city of Palo Alto.
Lathrop Drive in the Pine Hill residential area, honors university co-founder Jane Lathrop Stanford, Leland Stanford’s wife, and her brothers.
Many of the street names were given by David Starr Jordan, the founding president of Stanford, who was fond of naming streets after missionaries. Lasuen Street commemorates Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen, who left Spain in 1759 and served at various Franciscan missions in Mexico.
Raimundo Way refers to Rancho Canada de Raymundo, a large Mexican land grant situated in today’s San Mateo County.
One of the main roads on campus, Serra Street, was named for Father Junipero Serra, the Franciscan missionary and founder of the first nine missions in Alta California. The name was chosen by David Starr Jordan, Stanford’s first president because he was impressed by Serra’s passion, energy, and vision.
Some of the interesting geographic names were based on associations with the Gold Rush, namely Panama Street and Valparaiso. Panama Street first appeared in Stanford maps around 1915, a year after the Panama Canal opened. The name highlights the important role play by the Isthmus of Panama in the history of Gold Rush California as a popular shortcut bypassing Cape Horn.
Valparaiso was one of the original streets in the first residential area on campus. It was named for the seaport in Chile by the same name through which many gold rush hopefuls passes en route to California.
James M. Stewart, better known as Jimmy Stewart, entered Princeton as a Civil Engineering major (he wanted to be an architect) and was a “legacy” admission since his father also attended Princeton, graduating in 1898. Stewart attended Princeton and graduated in 1932, with honors. Stewart also served as Princeton’s head cheerleader during his junior year and was active in the Glee Club. Architecture turned out not to be his true love so instead of practicing it, he went into the theater and show business instead. While he was at Princeton he was active in the Triangle Club, a theater troupe founded in 1891.
Collectibles from Jimmy Stewart’s time at Princeton are rare. His performances in the Triangle Club are documented from surviving programs, such as the one pictured below from a 1930 play titled “The Tiger Smiles.” Princeton didn’t admit women until 1969 so the female parts in the musical were performed by males, although Stewart played a male character in this show, “Bruce Pelham, a senior.”
Stewart sang multiple parts in the musical in both acts one and two, singing a total of six times. His name is listed in the program among the cast of characters:
Images of Stewart as a cheerleader are captured in Princeton’s yearbook Bric-a-Brac, for the year of his graduation, 1932, and also he appears again in the 1933 Bric-a-Brac, where he is seen in a full page image along with his fellow cheerleaders.
Princeton doesn’t have fraternities or sororities like many other colleges and universities. Instead, they have “eating clubs,” where students take their meals and they are in effect like a fraternity or sorority. Stewart was a member of the Charter Club and his name is listed in Charter Club handbooks from the early 1930s.
The Penn Relays are the oldest and largest track and field competition in the United States and began in 1895. Among those who have run the Penn Relays some well known names are: Jessie Owens, Roger Bannister, Usain Bolt, Buzz Aldrin, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Bernie Sanders, Wilma Rudolph, Bob Beamon, Edwin Moses, Joan Benoit Samuelson, and Marion Jones. The Penn Relays are an eclectic set of races, held each Spring, in April. The first relay race was held concurrently with the opening of the original Franklin Field on the campus on UPenn in Philadelphia. Harvard won the first three signature races, the one mile relay. Penn won the race in 1915 setting a world record time of 3 minutes 18 seconds.
Not only do they feature nationally and internationally ranked athletes, but also from junior high schools in the area and high schools nationally. Athletes compete in a variety of sports including Decathlon, Hop, Step and Jump, Javelin and Hammer Throw, but the star of the program is the namesake, the relay races where runners have to hand off their baton to other runners.
Relay program from 1936 features Jesse Owens just prior to his victories in the Berlin Olympics
Jesse Owens competed in the 1936 Relays, representing Ohio State and winning three events (the quarter mile relay, the college medley relay and the half-mile relay). This was several months before he would cross the Atlantic and distinguish himself in the 1936 Berlin Games. Penn has a strong tradition in track and field and for many years the coach of the Penn track and field team was the coach of the U.S. Olympic team including in 1912, 1916, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932 and 1936.
The historic 1951 Penn Relays program featuring a fast student from Oxford University!
Roger Bannister is listed and pictured in the program, he was entered into the “Benjamin Franklin Invitation Mile Run” representing Oxford and won the race with a time of 4:08:30. In 1954 he would go on to become the first runner ever to break the 4:00:00 barrier running the mile.
Winners of Penn Relay Races receive medals and plaques with the likeness of the the founder of the University of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin, as seen above. Franklin is sitting in his library chair holding a laurel sprig in his left hand. Four nude runners stand facing him in a line all holding hands. The last runner in the line is holding the baton of the relay. Second place finishers receive a silver medal, and third place teams receive bronze. For a number of years winning team members received a gold watch and a giant bronze plaque that the school they represented can display when they returned home.
The early part of the twentieth century saw high rates of cigarette smoking and an intensely competitive market among manufacturers. Egyptian and Turkish tobacco products were all the rage, in particular made by a company called Murad. Prior to 1900 people hand-rolled their own cigarettes so buying a package in a colorful package was a big deal. Murad was a leader in using marketing to help advance its sales. There was a time in the 1970s when a bank would give you a toaster as a gift when opened an account. Murad employed a similar strategy “giving away” little gifts when you purchase their premium products. Although tobacco rugs were produced across a variety of different themes including Middle Eastern design patterns and country flags, our focus is on those associated with colleges and universities.
One popular such item were “tobacco” rugs, which often times were created with pennants and images of well-known universities on them. The rugs are miniature, typically measuring 7 inches by 4 inches. They are also known today as “doll house rugs,” and were made of either felt or silk.
Not to be outdone, Fatima cigarettes distinguished themselves with larger rugs, the Cornell specimen below measures 29 inches x 13 inches
In addition to the miniature rugs, manufacturers also produced leather “gifts” with their products. Also small items, they typically measure 2 1/2 x 2 inches, and because the image is pressed into the leather from behind the pennants are normally raised above the surface:
Murad’s most popular give away, though were tobacco cards (measuring 5 by 8 inches). Murad offered 150 different cards (six different set of 25), in their “college series,” highlighting various schools, and often an athlete for the school. Unlike silks or leather, cards were never included with the pack of cigarettes. Instead, after you accumulated a certain number (typically 15) purchase receipts, you mailed them into the company and they sent you a card. They even provided a handy list of each set on the back of the card:
There is something about the use of linen for postcards that adds such a great dimension to their eye appeal. Perhaps, the subtle use of colors or the fact that the images are slightly raised off the paper. We are big fans of them.
A view of South Hall on Columbia University’s Morningside Campus in linen with vintage automobiles in front
The Smithsonian Museum generally dates “Linen” postcards the 1930s through 1945 and technically aren’t even made from linen. “Linen” describes a higher than usual content of cotton fiber in the paper utilized that gives the cards their distinct texture. Linen postcards make great gifts for alumni or graduates and can be combined into frames to create collages, which in our context creates the tongue twisting “collegiate collages!”
An aerial view of the University of Chicago in linen
We have a nice selection of collegiate collectibles on our website including vintage linen postcards: www.collectableivy.com
Reed & Barton produced a series of limited edition Damascene etchings for various Colleges and Universities. The prints are made with silver, 24 karat gold vermeil, burnished cooper and bronze. Reed & Barton was a prominent American silversmith manufacturer based in the city of Taunton, Massachusetts and is now owned by Lenox, although they no longer produce these etchings. The art is framed and measures 14 1/2 inches x 12 1/2 inches.
The etchings display beautifully with a surprising amount of detail in the artwork. Below are some representative etchings:
The University of California Berkeley – Greek Theatre
Columbia University – Low Library
Damascene has a long history dating back centuries and was historically produced in locations that developed expertise in the technique such as Kyoto, Japan or Toldeo, Spain. The etchings were produced from the 1940s to the 1970s in limited editions. They are easy to maintain and were finished with a protective seal so that the copper and silver don’t need to be treated and don’t tarnish.
A lovely example of College Hall at the University of Pennsylvania
We have a nice selection of collegiate collectibles including Damascene etchings on our website: www.collectableivy.com
Vintage College Football Programs & Collectibles 
You must be logged in to post a comment.