George J Mullin's Personal Scrapbooks

[cfhofer]

I recently acquired the personal scrapbooks (2 books) of George J Mullin, star pitcher for the Detroit Tigers from 1902-13. Looks like his wife put these scrapbooks together, since it chronicles his baseball career and death. The vast majority of the scrapbooks are period newspaper clippings (baseball), however there are a few pieces of ephemera.

I'm not really a baseball collector (prefer 19th century Ivy League football memorabilia) so this type of stuff is not within my wheelhouse. Thought I would post here for thoughts/suggestions on what to do with them (donate to library, baseball hall of fame, etc).

Thanks for your help.

[byrone]

Great history there, wonderful item.

More evidence too of Ty Cobb's positive persona with his personal telegram to the mourning family

[btcarfagno]

Certainly some neat items with a bit of value. If you donate to the HOF it will likely never see the light of day again. Perhaps you should look to send to an auction house? This way it can go to someone who truly appreciates it and is a fan of Mr Mullin or the Tigers of that era.

It likely will not garner a ton of money...the newspaper clippings have little value but the other pieces of ephemera you have shown do all have some value.

Whatever you decide to do, they are truly wonderful pieces.

Tom C

[Hot Springs Bathers]

The Baseball Hall of Fame would be the perfect place for the donation. If you send them to an auction house they will cut apart and sold an individual pieces and a wonderful piece of baseball history would be lost forever.

All items in HOF Library are available for viewing by request. It is a terrific piece of history.

[btcarfagno]

Originally Posted by Hot Springs Bathers

The Baseball Hall of Fame would be the perfect place for the donation. If you send them to an auction house they will cut apart and sold an individual pieces and a wonderful piece of baseball history would be lost forever.

All items in HOF Library are available for viewing by request. It is a terrific piece of history.

I don't really see anything in what was posted that would be worth breaking up the books for. $50 here...$75 there...I don't think that an auction house would do that for such little money. I think that the value is more so in the totality of the pieces and where they came from. Unless there is some other item in there that has great value...in which case I would amend my remarks. From what I see, however, I do not think that the fear of cutting the items up is warranted.

Tom C

[cfhofer]

Yea, besides 1 or 2 more letters (Robert Mattingly and a kid named 'Willie Lawton') the rest are newspaper clippings of Mullin.

I got to imagine the real value in these scrapbooks is in the provenance of actually belonging to Mullin.

A couple people asked me about Mullin autographs. I didn't see an autograph of Mullin, however there is a short note written by one of the newspaper clippings. Did he write this? Could also be written by his wife or daughter.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by cfhofer

Yea, besides 1 or 2 more letters (Robert Mattingly and a kid named 'Willie Lawton') the rest are newspaper clippings of Mullin.

I got to imagine the real value in these scrapbooks is in the provenance of actually belonging to Mullin.

A couple people asked me about Mullin autographs. I didn't see an autograph of Mullin, however there is a short note written by one of the newspaper clippings. Did he write this? Could also be written by his wife or daughter.

Mark,
The writing along side the clipping is undoubtedly George Mullin's wife, as it doesn't match exemplars of his writing that I have seen.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by btcarfagno

I don't really see anything in what was posted that would be worth breaking up the books for. $50 here...$75 there...I don't think that an auction house would do that for such little money. I think that the value is more so in the totality of the pieces and where they came from. Unless there is some other item in there that has great value...in which case I would amend my remarks. From what I see, however, I do not think that the fear of cutting the items up is warranted.

Tom C

+1