One Life: Babe Ruth

June 24, 2016 – May 21, 2017 - This exhibition examines Babe Ruth as a baseball legend and the marketing frenzy his name and image fueled before the commercialization of sports superstars became routine.  Related themes focus on star power in an age before electronic mass media and the use of portraiture in advertising.

The exhibition will include approximately forty objects, from prints and photographs of Ruth, both in and out of his New York Yankees uniform, to personal paraphernalia, and advertising memorabilia endorsed by Ruth. The show will conclude with a look at a few of baseball’s greats—Hank Aaron, Roger Maris, and Whitey Ford—who chased and broke one or more of the Babe’s long-standing records.  Historian James Barber curates this exhibition.