Looking for photos of 19th Century baseballs

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Posted By: Rob L

The feather golf ball, which was a ball filled with goose feathers, covered with a stitched hide and then immersed in water. The ball feathers would expand while the hide would shrink, making a hard ball. The balls were then painted. These balls ranged in age from the early 1600's until the early 1800's. Golf balls were made using Gutta Percha beginning in the 1840's. The original baseballs (including those used in Townball) ranged in size from golf balls to softballs initially and standardized sizes became more prevalent in 1854 and changed again in 1860. The standardized sizes were likely used by manufacturers at the time, however, many balls were still handmade with materials at hand, thus, the great number of ball sizes through the 1840's to 1870's.