DENVER, CO.-The Denver Art Museum presents Capturing America 's Game: Photographs of Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig, on view through September 30, 2007. Capturing America's Game: Photographs of Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig will showcase vintage photographs revealing the role of sports photography in establishing baseball as America ’s game. Baseball’s popularity took off in the 1920s, a period when several major cities built large baseball stadiums. At the same time, many urban newspapers added sports sections to their papers, sparking a golden era of New York-based photography agencies such as Underwood and Underwood Photography, Acme News Pictures, and United News Pictures, all of whom provided the papers with key images of the game. Moreover, their photos were paired with witty captions such as “Watch Your Laurels Babe! Lou’s getting Speedy” for a 1929 photograph of Lou tearing towards another base.

“The iconic¾and sometimes very personal¾images that these photographers created helped establish players like Babe Ruth and his Yankee teammate Lou Gehrig as national superstars,” explains Museum director Lewis Sharp. “Through the late 1920s and early 1930s, Ruth and Gehrig were America ’s homerun heroes. Their popularity inspired young boys to play ball and fostered a generation of baseball fans.”

In addition to about 20 photographs of Ruth and Gehrig, Capturing America’s Game includes two baseball bats, four rare baseball cards, and a poster featuring the two players. All of the objects are on loan from Marshall Fogel, a Denver attorney and world-renowned collector of sports photography and memorabilia. The works will be on view on level three of the Hamilton Building.