Items

• Football Squad Colored YMCA
  YMCA Football team, champions in 1908. The team was affiliated with the local Black YMCA chapter.
• [African American basketball team]
  This photograph is a group portrait depicting members of an African American basketball team with their coach, likely in Philadelphia, taken in or around 1920.
• Base-ball-to-day Philadelphia Giants the fastest colored team in base ball vs Dixfield A.A.
  A handbill for a baseball game between the Philadelphia Giants and the Dixfield A.A. Formed in 1902, the Philadelphia Giants were a powerhouse independent Black team until disbanding in 1911, a move forced by player defections (Brack, 2025).
• Letter addressed to “Sir or Madam” from the City of Philadelphia Department of Public Welfare, Bureau of Recreation about reporting to Funfield Recreation Center “to demonstrate your life saving and swimming ability and training,” June 18, 1942
  Since this letter came from the collections of Georgine Upshur Willis, we assume that she received the letter from the Department of Public Welfare, Bureau of Recreation letter in 1942, asking Willis to try out to be a lifeguard at the Funfield Recreation Center. The Funfield Recreation Center was located at 22nd and Sedgley Street. The center, which was built in 1916, was designed by the architect Philip H. Johnson (1868-1933), who served as the architect for the Philadelphia City Department of Public Health.