American Sport Art Museum & Archives Receives Unique Collection of Tennis Magazines and Books

Academy Library Director Dr. Vandy Pacetti-Donelson inspects the tennis magazine collection that was recently donated to the American Sport Art Museum & Archives. Source: Asama.org

The owners of an antique store in Ohio recently donated a unique collection of tennis magazines and books to the American Sport Art Museum & Archives (ASAMA) on the campus of the United States Sports Academy.

Priscilla and Greg Wilt of Sidney, Ohio, donated the collection of tennis magazines dating from 1974 through 2018 to ASAMA. The collection is not sequential, but instead the pieces follow the athletic careers of tennis stars through years of magazine feature photos and articles. Some of the all-time tennis greats are featured, including Andre Agassi, Bjorn Borg, Steffi Graf, Venus Williams, Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova and others.

The donated collection also includes biographies, memoirs, educational and instructional books, and ephemera of the game of tennis. The collection will be featured in a special display in the Academy’s Dr. Robert Block Library along with selections of tennis art held in ASAMA. “Not only do these magazines follow the careers of some of the great tennis stars, but they also show changes in tennis fashion, changes in tennis equipment, and they show how magazine design has evolved since the 1970s,” Academy Library Director Dr. Vandy Pacetti-Donelson said. “The collection presents some interesting study opportunities for scholars and students. You can see trends in athletic wear and hair styles, and you can also infer some things about what was allowed in tennis at the time and what was not.”

image sources

  • Tennis collection 2: Asama.org