The Organization of American Historians, Mary K. Bonsteel Tachau, Teacher of the Year Award goes to Brian Sheehy for contributions made by precollegiate teachers to improve history education within the field of American history
National Women’s History Museum’s Breaking Barriers
This is a set of documents and guiding questions that I put together for the National Women’s History Museum’s NHD Breaking Barriers national contest. Many of the resources were found at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard, where I was awarded a grant to compile curriculum resources on women’s role in sport.
National History Day: WWI, Patriotism, and Civic Duty Lesson Plan
Here is the lesson I prepared for National History Day on WWI, Patriotism and Civic Duty https://www.nhd.org/sites/default/files/BaseballPatriotismandCivicDuty.pdf#overlay-context=baseballpatriotismandcivicduty
National History Day Memorializing the Fallen
More than floored to be selected for such an amazing program.
North Andover High School Learning Lab
No this isn’t specific to sports but I did create a learning lab at North Andover High School, where students can experience and learn history through hands on experience and objects. A lot of the objects in the lab came from cleaning out my grandmother and parents house but we have also gotten several donations of objects. Here is an article from the Lawrence Eagle Tribune Getting a sense of history . And a video I put together of the objects in the lab North Andover High School History Learning Lab
The lab is very WWII heavy but my goal will be to continue to expand the collection and have items and resources for all of the units we teach.
Awarded Schlesinger Library Teacher Support Grant
Im happy to announce I was awarded a Teacher Support Grant through Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard to put together curriculum on women in sports. I look forward to spending a good chunk of time putting material together this summer.
Edison Ford Winter Estates in Fort Meyers Florida
I will be heading to sunny Fort Meyers Florida to the Edison Ford Winter Estates to give a series of lectures on baseball history. Below is from the Edison Ford Winter Estates newsletter.
Base Ball in the 19th Century
Who knew Thomas Edison was a baseball fan! Back in the day… Edison visited Lee County’s baseball field – Terry Park during the Philadelphia Athletics spring training camp. He hit balls with Ty Cobb, posed for photos with the Phillies General Manager Connie Mack and invited the team over to his winter estate for refreshments (and cigars). In celebration of Edison’s interest in baseball the Edison & Ford Winter Estates will offer presentations on Base Ball (yes…. That is how the game was spelled in the late 1800s) during the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins Spring Training season.
March 24, 11 a.m. “The Evolution of 19th Century Base Ball.” This presentation outlines the development of the game, the equipment, uniforms and rules.
March 24, 12:30 p.m. “Boston Before the Red Sox” Have you ever heard of the Lowell Base Ball Club or the Tri Mountain’s? Did you know Boston dominated the baseball scene in the 1870s? Have you heard of Hall of Famers Mike “King” Kelly, Harry Wright, or John Clarkson? Visitors will learn about the game of Base Ball in Boston prior to our the Boston Red Sox
March 24, 2 p.m. “Bat and Ball Games since Colonial Times” will focus on the bat and ball games that helped shape and develop the game of baseball that we know today.
March 25, 11 a.m. “19th Century Big Business Practices through A. G. Spaulding” offers visitors a glimpse into the practices of businessmen John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie who have come to represent the most successful titans of industry during the Gilded Age. The presentation is designed to show how Albert Goodwill Spalding used many of the same business practices and principles to achieve the same type of business success in the sporting goods industry that Rockefeller and Carnegie achieved in oil and steel.
Lectures will be presented by Brian Sheehy, Base Ball historian, vintage Base Ball player and president of the Essex Base Ball Organization, a non profit organization consisting of six clubs in Massachusetts that play and educate the public on how the game of Base Ball was played in the 19th century. Sheehy has traveled throughout the nation playing Base Ball, instructing children’s clinics, and giving lectures on baseball history.
All presentations will be held at the Edison & Ford Winter Estates. Cost: Edison Ford Members , free; non members , included with any Edison Ford admission.
Northeast Popular Culture/ American Culture Conference
Brian Sheehy will be presenting at the Northeast Popular Culture Conference at UMASS Amherst this coming weekend. More info on the conference
PANEL 31 – CC 804-08 – Sports: Race and Sports
CHAIR: Dennis Gildea, Springfield College
“Depictions of Race in Early Sports Media,” Brian Sheehy, North Andover High School
“Black Baseball in Louisville, Kentucky,” Joe Baumstarck, University of Louisville
“Taking ‘the Crookeds with the Straights’: Baseball in the Play and Film Fences,” Philip Wedge, University of Kansas
Baseball in the Classroom 