Past Exhibits October 2003 to Present
Dodgers Do It!:
Celebrating Brooklyn's 1955 Big Win!
Exhibition Ran April 22,  2005–December 31,  2005

The world champion pennant being hung in Ebbets Field - Collection of National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

“Everything was crazy in Brooklyn last night… Nobody went home to supper… Nobody talked any sense… Everybody walked around with goofy expressions… for the unbelievable, the incredible, the impossible had come about… them Dodgers were the champions of the whole world. Saloon keepers gave away booze to guys they never saw before…Women kissed neighbors they wouldn't be caught dead talking to.” – Art Smith, the New York Daily News
The Dodgers' victory was Brooklyn's victory and it was felt across the borough, permeating social and racial barriers and unifying all of Brooklyn . Dodgers Do It!: Celebrating Brooklyn 's 1955 Big Win! highlighted the significant role that Brooklyn played in shaping the game of baseball. Before the Civil War, Brooklyn wrote the book on baseball and spread enthusiasm for the game throughout the country. The history continued with the Negro Leagues in Brooklyn and great baseball legends like Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges, and many others who helped to define the spirit of baseball.

In game 5, Carl Furillo slides safely back to second in the eighth inning. Octber 2, 1955 - Collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library

Our exhibit walked its viewers through each nail-biting game of the 1955 World Series the Dodgers played against the Yankees. Visitors learned how the excitement rippled through classrooms, bars, and households across the borough. Ebbets Field was a place where everyone felt a part of something. The  Brooklyn Historical Society celebrated the Dodgers and the energy of America’s favorite pastime.

Created in partnership with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Major support for this exhibition was provided by:

KeySpan Foundation, Modell's Sporting Goods, and the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation.

Additional support has been provided by:

Astoria Federal Savings, The Bank of New York, Inc. Conde Nast Publications, and UTZ Quality Foods, Inc.

Special thanks to: Marty Adler, Dan Bankhead Estate, Brooklyn Cyclones, Brooklyn Public Library – Brooklyn Collection, Bruce Dorskind, John Eler, Robert Fields, Ray Gazer, Millie and Bill Gladstone, The Modell Family, Peter Nash, Peter O'Malley, Angela and Tom Sarro, Stephen Schlein, Barry Tobias, Doris M. Tipograph, and Max Zakon.

General operating support is made possible with the public finds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.

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