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Winter Closure

Multiple Danforth campus libraries will be closed and inaccessible to patrons from December 21 until January 2. Read on for more details. 

Close up of a St. Louis Browns program.
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John M. Olin Library, Level 1, Newman Tower of Collections and Exploration

The St. Louis Browns

Olin Library’s Newman Tower of Collections and Exploration spotlights objects from the WashU Libraries’ Julian Edison Department of Special Collections, loaned artifacts, and exhibits curated by students and faculty.

WashU Libraries dedicated one of these display cases to a temporary exhibition on the St. Louis Browns to showcase some of our city’s history. This exhibition featured baseball memorabilia loaned to WashU by Lewis A. Levey, Ed Wheatley, and the St. Louis Browns Historical Society.

Who Were the St. Louis Browns?

If you have lived in St. Louis for a long time, you might remember that before the 1950s, the city used to have two baseball teams: the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Browns. The Browns were a Major League Baseball team that competed in the American League. Originally the Milwaukee Brewers, this team took the name the Browns, the former name of the St. Louis Cardinals, when it moved to St. Louis in 1902.

To learn more about baseball history in the United States and the St. Louis region, please check out the St. Louis Baseball History Research Guide compiled by the WashU Libraries Local History Archives. This guide details items in our collections related to St. Louis baseball history and links to books and resources.

Sportsman Park as viewed from above; the baseball diamond and outfield can be seen in the shot, along with players on the field and a packed stadium of onlookers.
Louie the elf is orange (team color), has a wide mouth, large eyes, tipped elf-ears, a full head of hair, and a pair of antennae.
A baseball with text written in pen with all-capital letters. The writing reads: "This ball was used in the last game the Browns played in St. Louis Sportsman Park on last Sunday, Sept. 1953."
A Browns jersey. The jersey is short sleeved, white (though discolored with age) with red piping, and has the team name across the front.
Mickelson is in-uniform on a baseball field with a ball-cap and is photographed with a bat ready to swing.
The program has two globes meeting at top with "1944 Worlds Series" written above them; at the bottom of the program is a knight riding a horse brandishing a cross at the top of a shield with the text "Browns. Cardinals. Sportsman's Park St. Louis. Souvenir Program. Twenty-five Cents."