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Great Footage From the Opening of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, June 12, 1939

Eighty-seven years ago today, the Baseball Hall of Fame opened its doors in Cooperstown, New York, with a dedication ceremony featuring speeches by some of baseball’s all-time greats, including Cy Young, Eddie Collins, and, of course, the great Bambino, Babe Ruth. As we all know, Cooperstown was chosen for the site due to an erroneous report that claimed Abner Doubleday had invented the game in the small town. Today, it’s estimated that over 266,000 baseball fans visit the Hall of Fame annually.

Here’s great footage from the 1939  dedication ceremony

The Hall of Fame was established in 1939 by Stephen Carlton Clark, heir to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. The area around Cooperstown had been decimated by the Great Depression, and so Clark sought to bring tourists to the village. Clark oversaw the construction of the Hall of Fame’s building, which was dedicated on June 12, 1939. His granddaughter, Jane Forbes Clark, is the current chairman of the board of directors. The mythology that future Civil War hero Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown in the 1830s was instrumental in the placement and early marketing of the Hall.

Information from the Hall of Fame website:

“The first five men elected were Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson, chosen in 1936; roughly 20 more were selected before the entire group was inducted at the Hall’s 1939 opening. As of January 2026, 354 people had been elected to the Hall of Fame, including 281 former professional players, 23 managers, 10 umpires, and 40 pioneers, executives, and organizers. 119 members of the Hall of Fame have been inducted posthumously, including four who died after their selection was announced. Of the 39 members primarily recognized for their contributions to Negro league baseball, 31 were inducted posthumously, including all 26 selected since the 1990s. The Hall of Fame includes one woman, baseball executive Effa Manley.”

“The Hall of Fame’s collections contain more than 40,000 three-dimensional artifacts – such as bats, balls, gloves and uniforms – donated by players and fans who want to see history preserved. The Museum’s curators use the artifacts – whose number grows by about 400 each year – to tell the story of the National Pastime through exhibits. The National Baseball Hall of Fame Library also contains more than 250,000 baseball photographs and images.”

“Thousands of fans attended the opening of the Hall of Fame on June 12, 1939, and that same year another Cooperstown tradition was started with the launch of the annual Hall of Fame Game. For 70 years, the Hall of Fame Game became an annual celebration of the game as two Major League Baseball teams played an annual exhibition contest at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown. Though the game was discontinued in 2008, the legends live on with the advent of the Hall of Fame Classic, an annual event over Memorial Day Weekend featuring Hall of Famers and former major leaguers at historic Doubleday Field.”

Gary Livacari

Quotes above from the National Baseball Hall of Fame Website and from National Baseball Hall of Fame Wikipedia page

Photo Credits: All found on Google search

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