History Of Peck & Snyder
Andrew Peck and Irving Snyder started the Peck & Snyder Sporting Goods company in 1866. The business was located at 124-128 Nassau Street in New York. They found early success with their invention of the first rubber-soled and canvas tennis shoe as well as the two-wheeled inline skate.
At that time, both baseball and photography were in their infancy. The American public was exhausted from the Civil War that nearly tore it apart and they needed a release. Baseball was just the thing people needed to bring them together.
Although their emotions were still raw from the war, Americans found the rapidly spreading popularity of baseball was a common ground upon which to gather. Men that only a year earlier had tried to kill each other on the battlefield were now teammates on the ballfield. Peck & Snyder Sporting Goods seized the moment and combined sports and pictures into one. Baseball fans no doubt loved it.
As a sporting goods store, Peck & Snyder sold baseball equipment and supplies. Producing baseball cards as advertising material fit right in with the business they had already established. Other businesses, in an attempt to capitalize on the growing marketing trend, soon followed suit. They started distributing baseball cards with advertisements for their companies printed on the back even when their companies had absolutely nothing to do with baseball or athleticism. Cigarette cards like Old Judge and Allen & Ginter gained popularity before the century was over.
In 1849, the New York Knickerbockers sported the first known baseball caps which were, in fact, made from straw. Highly ineffective and most likely very itchy, the Knickerbockers ditched the straw caps a few years later for a wool cap produced by Peck & Snyder. This new cap featured a flat, panelled crown made from merino wool and a short visor to help shield the players’ eyes from the sun.
The Crescent Athletic Club
The Crescent Athletic Club was an athletic club in Brooklyn. Founded by a group of Yale University alumni in 1884 as an American football club, it later expanded to include other sports, including lacrosse and basketball. The club had over 1,500 members in the early 20th century. The club’s membership declined in the 20th century, and it filed for bankruptcy in 1939. The club also became an important social institution in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, hosting plays, dinners, dances, lectures, concerts, and minstrel shows.
The Kools
Most semi-pro teams are company sponsored. They take on a few ringers now and then and give jobs to some pretty good players, in this case at Brown & Williamson Tobacco. Kools were the first menthol to go nationwide and enormously popular Willie the Penguin won out as mascot from seals and walruses appearing first in the 1940s. By the ’50s jingles like Lady be Kool and “Even if you cough like crazy, KOOLS still taste fresh as a daisy.” vied with a comic book Willie getting the kiddies ready for an adult life where cartons of cigarettes were sent to V.A. hospitals for every NY Giants home run.
The Springfield Isotopes
The team is shown as drastically underfunded and struggling in competition. Their home games are played at Duff Stadium as Duff Beer sponsors and co-manages the team. The Isotopes name is most likely in reference to Springfield’s nuclear power plant. Homer was the Isotopes mascot for a brief period, taking over from the Capital City Goofball, before being fired.
The Archive
The designs straight from the Peck & Snyder archives. These designs are from the legendary boxing and baseball teams. Teams that were extremely successful in their era.
