Collection Item of the Week - Hank severeid items

We've recently added new items to our exhibit on local baseball hero Hank Severeid.  These items include a book and a halftone printing block.  We'd like to thank Dwayne Fiihr and Al Holm for donating these items.

In 1941, Hank Severeid co-authored a book entitled Play Ball! Advice for Young Ballplayers with Charles E. Chapman.  Our copy is a third edition and was published by Harper and Brothers Publishers, New York, NY.  Topics covered in the book include: what scouts look for in a ballplayer, batting strategy, running the bases, characteristics of each field position, and signing a contract.  

The halftone printing block is taken from a photograph of Hank Severeid in a St. Louis Browns uniform.  Hank played with the Browns from 1915-1925.  Halftone Blocks are made from a zinc or copper plate which is attached to a solid block of wood.  The image is broken up into small dots, varying either in size, in shape or in spacing, generating a gradient like effect.  This image of Hank was used in the 1931 pictorial Story City Golden Jubilee Book published locally by Paul A. Olson.

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