Center for Dubuque History Pitching Baseball History in August

DUBUQUE, Iowa — The Loras College Center for Dubuque History (CDH) is hosting a new week-long project celebrating the game of baseball and Dubuque’s unique contributions to our national pastime in conjunction with the 2022 Major League Baseball at Field of Dreams game on August 11.

At the center of the project will be an exhibit featuring baseballs signed by nationally renowned players as well as those with local ties from the John Fox Memorabilia Collection. It will also display sports memorabilia and ephemera from the CDH’s collections, the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium and local historians and collectors. These materials will illustrate connections between Iowa, baseball, and the MLB.

The exhibit will be open to the public August 8 through 12 in the CDH at the Miller Academic Resource Center on the Loras College campus.

On Wednesday, August 10, local historian Brian Cooper will give a presentation that will uncover the story of Urban Clarence “Red” Faber — the only Dubuque County native in the National Baseball Hall of Fame — and will explore the history of baseball in Dubuque. A journalist, editor and historian, Cooper is also the author of “Red Faber: A Biography of the Hall of Fame Spitball Pitcher,” which was a finalist for the 2008 Larry Ritter Award, presented by the Society for American Baseball Research. Cooper’s presentation will begin at noon in the CDH.

This project uses baseball as a starting point for visitors to explore the history of Dubuque and Iowa’s ties to the national pastime through an exhibit, presentation and the collection and preservation of memories and objects related to this history.

“I am so excited to share this collection with visitors,” Heidi Pettitt, director for the CDH, said. “I think it will really help them understand the important role Iowa and Dubuque played in the national history of baseball.”

The program is supported by Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The views and opinions expressed by this program do not necessarily reflect those of Humanities Iowa or the National Endowment for the Humanities.