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<eadid countrycode="us" mainagencycode="CtW" publicid="-//Wesleyan University::Special Collections and Archives//TEXT (US::CtW::1000-43::Agallian Base Ball Club Records)//EN" url="http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/schome/FAs/ag1000-43.xml">ag1000-43</eadid>
<filedesc>
	<titlestmt>
		<titleproper>Guide to the Agallian Base Ball Club Records,
		<lb/><date normal="1865/1869">1865 - 1869</date>
		</titleproper>
		<author>Processed by: Jeffrey Makala; machine-readable finding aid created by: Valerie Gillispie</author>

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	<publicationstmt>&hdrsca;

		



		<p><date normal="2006" encodinganalog="date">&#x00A9; 2006</date> Wesleyan University. All Rights Reserved.</p>
	</publicationstmt>

	
</filedesc>

<profiledesc>
	<creation>Machine-readable finding aid derived from XML authoring program.<lb/>
		<date>Date of source: April 2006</date>
	</creation>
	<langusage>Description is in
		<language langcode="eng">English</language>
	</langusage>

	<descrules>Finding aid was prepared using <title>DACS</title></descrules>  

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</eadheader>


<frontmatter>
<titlepage>
<titleproper>Guide to the Agallian Base Ball Club Records, <date type="span">1865 - 1869</date>
</titleproper>

<publisher>
<extptr show="embed" entityref="weseal"/>
Special Collections &amp; Archives<lb/>Wesleyan University<lb/>
		Middletown, CT, USA		



		
</publisher>








<!-- Delete paragraph below and this comment line if your institution does not copyright its findingaids. --> 

<p><date normal="2006">&#x00A9; 2006</date> Wesleyan University. All Rights Reserved.</p>
</titlepage>
</frontmatter>







<archdesc level="collection" relatedencoding="MARC">

<did>
<head>Descriptive Summary</head>

<repository label="Repository"> 
<corpname>Special Collections &amp; Archives, Wesleyan University</corpname></repository> 

<origination label="Creator"><corpname encodinganalog="110">Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.). Agallian Baseball Club.</corpname>
</origination>

<unittitle label="Title" encodinganalog="245">Agallian Base Ball Club Records, <unitdate normal="1865/1869" type="inclusive">1865 - 1869</unitdate></unittitle>

<unitid countrycode="us" repositorycode="CtW" label="Call Number" encodinganalog="099">1000-43</unitid>

<langmaterial label="Language of Material" encodinganalog="546">Material in <language langcode="eng">English</language></langmaterial>

<physdesc label="Linear Feet">

<extent encodinganalog="300">0.4</extent></physdesc>
<physdesc label="Archival Boxes">
<extent>1</extent>
</physdesc>

<physloc label="Location">For current information on the location of
these materials, please consult Special Collections &amp; Archives staff.</physloc> 

<abstract label="Abstract" encodinganalog="545">The Agallian Base Ball Club was the first formally organized baseball team at Wesleyan University from 1864 to 1871.</abstract>


<abstract encodinganalog="520">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.</abstract>

</did>

<descgrp type="admininfo">
<head>Administrative Information</head>

<accessrestrict encodinganalog="506">
<head>Access Restrictions</head>
<p>No restrictions.</p>
</accessrestrict>

<userestrict encodinganalog="540">
<head>Copyright Notice</head>
<p>Copyright for Official University records is held by Wesleyan University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law. </p>
</userestrict>

<prefercite>
<head>Preferred Citation</head>
<p>[Identification of item], Agallian Base Ball Club Records, Special Collections &amp; Archives, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, USA.</p>
</prefercite>

<acqinfo encodinganalog="541">
<head>Acquisitions Information</head>
<p>Received in part as a donation to the library from Harlow B. "Doc" Raymond, superintendent of buildings and grounds, before 1910.</p>
</acqinfo>

<processinfo>
<head>Processing Information</head>
<p>Processed by Jeffrey Makala, 2000</p>
<p>Encoded by Valerie Gillispie, April 2006</p>
</processinfo>

</descgrp>
<!-- Enter each paragraph of the bioghist in separate p elements. -->
<bioghist>
<head>Historical Note</head>
<p>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>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>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><!-- use "Chronlist Tags" here if there is a chronology -->
</bioghist>


<!-- Enter each paragraph of the scopecontent and arrangement in separate p elements. -->
<scopecontent>
<head>Collection Overview</head>
<p>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>


</scopecontent>

<controlaccess>
<head>Online Catalog Headings</head>
<p>These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.</p>


<corpname source="lcnaf" encodinganalog="610">Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.)--Baseball. </corpname>
<corpname source="lcnaf" encodinganalog="610">Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.)--Sports. </corpname>
<subject source="lcnaf" encodinganalog="650">Baseball--Connecticut--Middletown--19th century. </subject>
<subject source="lcsh" encodinganalog="650">Baseball teams--Connecticut--Middletown--19th century. </subject>
<corpname source="lcnaf" encodinganalog="610">Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.)--Students. </corpname>
<corpname source="lcnaf" encodinganalog="610">Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.)--History--19th century. </corpname>
<corpname source="lcnaf" encodinganalog="610">Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.). Agallian Base Ball Club. </corpname>




</controlaccess>

<!-- Use separated materials and related materials clips here to enter in information -->
<relatedmaterial>
<head>Related Material</head>
<p>Athletics Teams Records, collection 1999-65, Wesleyan University Archives.</p>
<p>Nicolson, Frank W., ed. <title render="italic">Athletics at Wesleyan</title>. Middletown: Wesleyan University Alumni Council, 1938.</p>
<p>Stephen Henry Olin (Class of 1866), correspondence with his mother, Julia Olin, 1864-65, in the Olin Family Papers, Box 6, Special Collections &amp; Archives, Wesleyan University. Approximately 6 pieces during this time mention the organization and activities of the Agallian Base Ball Club.</p>
<p>Vertical files collection - baseball folders, Wesleyan University Archives.</p>

</relatedmaterial>


<dsc type="combined">
<head>Detailed Description of the Collection</head>

<c01><did><unittitle></unittitle></did>
<c02>
<did><container type="Box">1</container><container type="Folder">1</container>
<unittitle>Photographs, 1865</unittitle>
</did>
</c02>
<c02>
<did><container type="Folder">2</container>
<unittitle>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. </unittitle>
</did><scopecontent>
<p>Two autograph manuscripts, one signed by the Waterbury club secretary and one signed and sealed in wax by a notary public.</p>
</scopecontent>
</c02>
<c02>
<did><container type="Folder">3</container>
<unittitle>Benefit program, 1867</unittitle>
</did>
</c02>


<c02>
<did><container type="Folder">4</container>
<unittitle>Scorebook, 1 ledger volume 21 ½ x 32 cm, with cover title <title render="doublequote">Agallian Base Ball Club, Middletown, Conn.</title></unittitle>
</did><scopecontent>
<p>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.</p>
</scopecontent>
</c02>
<c02>
<did><container type="Folder">5</container>
<unittitle>  	

Scorebook, 1 volume 20 x 17cm, titled <emph render="doublequote">Score-Book of the Agallian B. B. Club, organized Sept. 1864.</emph> </unittitle>
</did><scopecontent>
<p>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.</p>

</scopecontent>


</c02>








</c01>

</dsc>

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