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[Football broadside, caption title]: J. Pitman, Boot and Shoe Maker. West Medford, Near the Depot, Usher's Block by Not Shakespeare [probable pseudonym of John Pitman] - 1872

by Not Shakespeare [probable pseudonym of John Pitman]

[Football broadside, caption title]: J. Pitman, Boot and Shoe Maker. West Medford, Near the Depot, Usher's Block by Not Shakespeare [probable pseudonym of John Pitman] - 1872

[Football broadside, caption title]: J. Pitman, Boot and Shoe Maker. West Medford, Near the Depot, Usher's Block

by Not Shakespeare [probable pseudonym of John Pitman]

  • Used
  • Fine
West Medford, [Massachusetts, 1872. Unbound. Fine. Broadside printed in gold on indigo-dyed glazed paper. Approximately 8½" x 11". One small marginal tear, else fine. A broadside advertising Pitman's shop through the use of poetic doggerel, Signed in type "Not Shakespeare." After giving his qualifications as a bootmaker in Boston for 25 years, Pitman concludes with a poem. The first three stanzas laud the cobbler's skill in repairing boots and shoes, the fourth and final stanza declares: "Your foot-balls Boys, If they lose their wind / Bring on, for he can stop it, / And lest you may say I'm windy too / I think I'd better drop it." According to the *Medford Historical Society Papers*, "Jon Pitman, the fat and jolly boot maker, who kept the old curiosity shop in Brattle street..." opened his West Medford shop around 1872, for a brief period.

An informal version of American-style football was played in the Boston area as early as the late 1850s, and the first college football game was held in the fall of 1869. This waggish exhortation for boys to bring their deflated footballs to the chubby boot maker must certainly qualify as one of the earliest references in print to the new sport, and almost certainly the earliest poem to incorporate the sport and it is certainly the earliest we've seen offered for sale. According to Grobani's *Guide to Football Literature*, one book on American football precedes this mention, *Beadle's Dime Book of Cricket and Football* (1866, Grobani 1-1). *OCLC* locates no copies of this broadside.
  • Bookseller Between the Covers- Rare Books, Inc. ABAA US (US)
  • Format/Binding Unbound
  • Book Condition Used - Fine
  • Quantity Available 1
  • Place of Publication West Medford, [Massachusetts
  • Date Published 1872
  • Keywords Broadside, Football, Americana, Ephemera