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</style><title>Guide to the Agallian Base Ball Club Records,
1865 - 1869
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" name="dc.title" content="Guide to the Agallian
Base Ball Club Records,
 1865 - 1869">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" name="dc.author" content="Wesleyan University
(Middletown, Conn.). Agallian Baseball Club.">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" name="dc.subject" content="Wesleyan University
(Middletown, Conn.)--Baseball. ">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" name="dc.subject" content="Wesleyan University
(Middletown, Conn.)--Sports. ">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" name="dc.subject" content="Wesleyan University
(Middletown, Conn.)--Students. ">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" name="dc.subject" content="Wesleyan University
(Middletown, Conn.)--History--19th century. ">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" name="dc.subject" content="Wesleyan University
(Middletown, Conn.). Agallian Base Ball Club. ">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" name="dc.subject"
content="Baseball--Connecticut--Middletown--19th century. ">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" name="dc.subject" content="Baseball
teams--Connecticut--Middletown--19th century. ">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" name="dc.title" content="Agallian Base Ball Club
Records, 1865 - 1869">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" name="dc.type" content="text">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" name="dc.format" content="manuscripts">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" name="dc.format" content="finding aids">
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<h3>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h3><br><p><b><a href="#d0e83">Descriptive
Summary</a></b></p>
<p style="margin-top:-5pt"><b><a href="#d0e145">Historical Note</a></b></p>
<p style="margin-top:-5pt"><b><a href="#d0e156">Collection Overview</a></b></p>
<p style="margin-top:-5pt"><b><a href="#restrictlink">Restrictions</a></b></p>
<p style="margin-top:-5pt"><b><a href="#d0e161">Online Catalog
Headings</a></b></p>
<p style="margin-top:-5pt"><b><a href="#relatedmatlink">Related
Material</a></b></p>
<p style="margin-top:-5pt"><b><a href="#adminlink">Administrative
Information</a></b></p>
<p style="margin-top:-5pt"><b><a href="#d0e195">Detailed Description of the
Collection</a></b></p>
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<h2 style="text-align:center"><a name="">Guide to the Agallian Base Ball Club
Records,
1865 - 1869</a></h2>
<h3 style="text-align:center"></h3><br><center><img src="./seals/weseal.gif"></center>
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<h3><a name="d0e83">Descriptive Summary</a></h3>
</td>
</tr>
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<td valign="top"><b>Repository</b></td>
<td>Special Collections & Archives, Wesleyan University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Creator</b></td>
<td>Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.). Agallian Baseball Club.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Title</b></td>
<td>Agallian Base Ball Club Records, </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Dates </b></td>
<td>1865 - 1869</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Linear Feet</b></td>
<td>0.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Archival Boxes</b></td>
<td>1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Abstract</b></td>
<td>The Agallian Base Ball Club was the first formally organized baseball team
at Wesleyan University from 1864 to 1871.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b></b></td>
<td>This collection contains the surviving records of the club. The two
scorebooks provide detailed inning-by-inning statistics
for Agallian players for each of the recorded games; most games have dates and
duration of time ascribed to them and scorer
and umpire identification. Some matches which are recorded in these volumes took
place against other Wesleyan teams as well
as Connecticut baseball clubs and teams from other universities.
</td>
</tr>
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<td valign="top"><b>Call Number</b></td>
<td>1000-43</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Location</b></td>
<td>For current information on the location of
these materials, please consult Special Collections & Archives staff.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><b>Language of Material</b></td>
<td>Material in English</td>
</tr>
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<hr>
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<td width="100%" valign="top" align="left" colspan="2">
<h3><a name="d0e145">Historical Note</a></h3>
<p style="margin-left:25pt">The Agallian Base Ball Club was the first formally
organized baseball team at Wesleyan University. It was formed in the autumn
of 1864 and played its first matches against other teams the following spring.
Baseball had been played informally at Wesleyan
back to at least 1860. Baseball letters were given (often at a considerably
later date) to Wesleyan athletes in baseball beginning
with the 1861-62 season. The name Agallian was given by professor of Greek James
Van Benschoten as a derivation of the name
Agalles, who was said to have invented the first game of ball-playing in ancient
Greece (cf. College Argus, June 11, 1868).
</p>
<p style="margin-left:25pt">The club played its first match against the Charter
Oak Base Ball Club of Hartford in the spring of 1865, losing 22-12. Its
first intercollegiate game, which was also Wesleyan’s first
intercollegiate athletic contest, was against Yale on September
30, 1865, with Yale winning 39-13. One of club’s founders, Charles L.
Bonnell, class of 1868, served as captain for his entire
playing career. The first practices and home games took place on the Washington
Street green in Middletown and on a nearby
vacant plot of land on Washington Street. Later photos exist of games being
played on the Wesleyan campus on what is now Andrus
Field, which at the time was essentially an undrained swamp or wetlands. The
Agallian club was not a formally sponsored university
team but a club composed of members of several Wesleyan classes. A later
organization, the University Base Ball Club, founded
in 1869, seems to have had a more formal endorsement from the administration.
</p>
<p style="margin-left:25pt">The Agallian B.B.C. ceased to function after 1871,
when baseball began to be eclipsed by the popularity of rowing as a collegiate
sport. Aside from informal contests between class teams, Wesleyan was not to
have an organized baseball program again until
1888.
</p>
<p><a href="#">Return to the Table of Contents</a></p>
<hr>
<h3><a name="d0e156">Collection Overview</a></h3>
<p style="margin-left:25pt">This collection contains the surviving records of
the club. The two scorebooks provide detailed inning-by-inning statistics
for Agallian players for each of the recorded games; most games have dates and
duration of time ascribed to them and scorer
and umpire identification. Some matches which are recorded in these volumes took
place against other Wesleyan teams as well
as Connecticut baseball clubs and teams from other universities.
</p>
<p><a href="#">Return to the Table of Contents</a></p>
<hr>
<h3><a name="restrictlink"><b>Restrictions</b></a></h3>
<h4 style="margin-left: 25pt">Access Restrictions</h4>
<p style="margin-left:50pt">No restrictions.</p>
<h4 style="margin-left: 25pt">Copyright Notice</h4>
<p style="margin-left:50pt">Copyright is retained by the authors of items in
these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright
law.
</p>
<p><a href="#">Return to the Table of Contents</a></p>
<hr>
<h3><a name="relatedmatlink"><b>Related Material</b></a></h3>
<p style="margin-left: 25pt">Athletics Teams Records, collection 1999-65,
Wesleyan University Archives.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 25pt">Nicolson, Frank W., ed. <i>Athletics at Wesleyan</i>.
Middletown: Wesleyan University Alumni Council, 1938.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 25pt">Stephen Henry Olin (Class of 1866), correspondence
with his mother, Julia Olin, 1864-65, in the Olin Family Papers, Box 6,
Special Collections & Archives, Wesleyan University. Approximately 6 pieces
during this time mention the organization and
activities of the Agallian Base Ball Club.
</p>
<p style="margin-left: 25pt">Vertical files collection - baseball folders,
Wesleyan University Archives.</p>
<p><a href="#">Return to the Table of Contents</a></p>
<hr><a name="d0e161">
<h3><a name="d0e161">Online Catalog Headings</a></h3></a><p
style="text-indent:25pt">
<p style="margin-left:25pt">These and related materials may be found under the
following headings in online catalogs.</p>
</p>
<div style="margin-left:50pt">Baseball teams--Connecticut--Middletown--19th
century. </div>
<div style="margin-left:50pt">Baseball--Connecticut--Middletown--19th century.
</div>
<div style="margin-left:50pt">Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.)--Baseball.
</div>
<div style="margin-left:50pt">Wesleyan University (Middletown,
Conn.)--History--19th century. </div>
<div style="margin-left:50pt">Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.)--Sports.
</div>
<div style="margin-left:50pt">Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.)--Students.
</div>
<div style="margin-left:50pt">Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.). Agallian
Base Ball Club. </div>
<p><a href="#">
Return to the Table of Contents
</a></p>
<hr>
<h3><a name="adminlink">Administrative Information</a></h3>
<h4 style="margin-left:25pt"><a name="d0e127"><b>Preferred Citation</b></a></h4>
<p style="margin-left:50pt">[Identification of item], Agallian Base Ball Club
Records, Special Collections & Archives, Wesleyan University, Middletown,
CT, USA.
</p>
<h4 style="margin-left:25pt"><a name="d0e132"><b>Acquisitions
Information</b></a></h4>
<p style="margin-left:50pt">Received in part as a donation to the library from
Harlow B. "Doc" Raymond, superintendent of buildings and grounds, before
1910.
</p>
<h4 style="margin-left:25pt"><a name="d0e137"><b>Processing
Information</b></a></h4>
<p style="margin-left:50pt">Processed by Jeffrey Makala, 2000</p>
<p style="margin-left:50pt">Encoded by Valerie Gillispie, April 2006</p>
<p><a href="#">Return to the Table of Contents</a></p>
<hr>
<h3><a name="d0e195">Detailed Description of the Collection</a></h3>
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<td colspan="12"><b><a name="series1"> </a></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Box</b></td>
<td><b>Folder</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">1</td>
<td valign="top">1</td>
<td valign="top" colspan="10">Photographs, 1865 </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b></b></td>
<td><b>Folder</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"></td>
<td valign="top">2</td>
<td valign="top" colspan="10">Attestation of the permanent membership of the
Waterbury Base Ball Club at the time of, and 30 days prior to, its match with
the Agallian Club on June 2, 1866, played at Hartford.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td colspan="8">Two autograph manuscripts, one signed by the Waterbury club
secretary and one signed and sealed in wax by a notary public.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b></b></td>
<td><b>Folder</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"></td>
<td valign="top">3</td>
<td valign="top" colspan="10">Benefit program, 1867 </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b></b></td>
<td><b>Folder</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"></td>
<td valign="top">4</td>
<td valign="top" colspan="10">Scorebook, 1 ledger volume 21 ½ x 32 cm,
with cover title "Agallian Base Ball Club, Middletown, Conn." </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td colspan="8">Commercially-produced base ball scorebook containing records of
the first games of the club including participants, positions
and scoring information for the Agallians (not their opponents), game times and
dates, scorer and umpire information, 1865-69.
For the 12 games recorded in this volume, opponents are: Charter Oak B.B.C.,
Hartford; Yale College B.B.C.; Waterbury B.B.C.;
Forest City B.B.C., Middletown, Conn.; Nicaean B.B.C., Amherst College; Howard
B.B.C., Hartford; Freshman (i.e. Class of ’72)
Club, Wesleyan University; and the University B.B.C., Wesleyan University.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b></b></td>
<td><b>Folder</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"></td>
<td valign="top">5</td>
<td valign="top" colspan="10">
Scorebook, 1 volume 20 x 17cm, titled "Score-Book of the Agallian B. B. Club,
organized Sept. 1864."
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td colspan="8">Notebook with line rulings added by the club to approximate the
first scorebook. Contains similar game, player and scoring
records for the Agallian teams 1865-66, including duplicated information from
the primary scorebook. Also contains records
for additional games played, player information and statistics for both the
first and second Agallian "nines" which are not
found in the first scorebook.
</td>
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