Team Stationary

[Joe_G.]

I enjoy collecting cards as much as the next guy but find memorabilia particularly fascinating. My passion for 19th Century Detroit baseball has kept me on the straight and narrow for years, focused on only those items. Some of my favorite memorabilia items include a collection of letters that originate from two different collections, the Rhys Yeakley collection of Robert Allen letters and more recently Bryan Dec's small collection of letters to Bill Watkins. Most of the Bill Watkins letters date to mid 1885 when he took over as manager of the Detroit Wolverines (when Detroit purchased the Western League Indianapolis Hoosiers). The Bob Allen letters date to late 1888 and 1889, after the NL team disbanded. These letters chronicle a failed attempt to secure Bob Allen's talents for Detroit's new minor league team by the same name (the International Association Detroit Wolverines). Below, I've attached examples of team stationary from four different years, all written by Robert Leadley who served as team secretary, treasurer, and/or manager (depending on date).

Four years down, six to go . Kind of like collecting Old Judges, you'll never finish the set/subset. I'll probably be looking for awhile as I'm not aware of any letters dating to a year not shown below.

The first three examples represent stationary for the National League Detroit Wolverines and the last being for the International Association Detroit Wolverines. Note that Robert Leadley utilized some of the NL stationary in late 1888, after the NL team disbanded, on correspondences relating to the new minor league team. Leadley would finish 1888 as the NL team's manager and then manage the IA team as well.

Please share some of your team stationary.