1869 Turf Field and Farm — New Year's Eve, Fox Hunting, Baseball, Full Year Index, Dec 31
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1869 Turf Field and Farm — New Year's Eve, Fox Hunting, Baseball, Full Year Index, Dec 31
📜 ABOUT THIS PIECE OF HISTORY 📜
This December 31, 1869 issue of The Turf, Field and Farm — Volume IX, Number 27 — is the final issue of both the year and the entire decade, making it among the most significant single issues of this scarce Gilded Age sporting weekly. As the closing number of Volume IX, it contains the complete Contents of Volume IX — a full index of every article, story, and feature published throughout 1869 — alongside the Contents of Volume VIII, giving collectors and researchers a rare, comprehensive reference to an entire year of American sporting history. For collectors of early baseball history, fox hunting literature, Victorian chess ephemera, horse racing history, and 19th-century Americana, this New Year's Eve issue is an extraordinary primary source.
🦊 FRONT PAGE — "A DAY WITH THE FOX-HOUNDS"
The final issue of the decade opens with a richly written narrative — "A Day with the Fox-hounds" — an immersive account of a fox hunting day in the English tradition, set against the backdrop of winter countryside and Gilded Age sporting society. A beautifully composed lead feature befitting a year-end number.
🎊 "A HAPPY NEW YEAR" — YEAR-END EDITORIAL
A warm year-end editorial welcomes 1870 and reflects on the paper's growth and the state of American sporting life — a snapshot of optimism at the dawn of a new decade from one of the nation's leading sporting journals.
📚 CONTENTS OF VOLUME IX — A COMPLETE YEAR INDEX
The crown jewel of this issue for researchers and collectors: the full Contents of Volume IX, listing every article, story, correspondence, and feature published in The Turf, Field and Farm throughout 1869, alongside the Contents of Volume VIII. An invaluable reference document for anyone studying 19th-century American sporting history, horse racing, early baseball, or Victorian field sports.
⚾ BASEBALL
Baseball box scores and reporting continue through the final week of 1869, maintaining the paper's consistent coverage of the national game through the close of this pivotal season in baseball's early professional history.
🏇 HORSE RACING & THE TURF
A comprehensive final racing section for 1869 including:
Buckeye Club Cincinnati — Spring Meeting 1870, commencing Tuesday May 24, $19,000 in purses, with detailed day-by-day conditions
Saratoga Association — Kentucky Stakes and Kenner Stakes
Prospect Park Fair Ground Association — first week June 1870
Sherman House Stake for Colts and Fillies Foaled in 1868 — Oakridge Park, Chicago
American Jockey Club — Lambard Stakes
Prospect Park Colt Stake — 1870, 1871, and 1872
Maryland Jockey Club — Bowie Stake for All Ages
Herdic Park Trotting Meeting, Williamsport, PA
Mystic Park and the Baltemores — trotting results and analysis
Trotting Stallions for 1870 — season listings
Ethan Allen — prominent trotting stallion advertisement
Practical Remarks on Mules — breeding and management
On Buying Horses — practical advice for the sporting purchaser
🎯 FIELD SPORTS & HUNTING
"My Last Summer Day's Shooting" — an evocative personal narrative of a season's final shooting outing, richly written in the tradition of Victorian field sport literature
The Trigger column — gun notes, field sport dispatches, and equipment commentary
Fox Hunting — the front page narrative sets the tone for a full issue of sporting country life
♟️ CHESS & DRAUGHTS
Mackenzie's Chess Chronicle with multiple annotated board diagrams closes out the year. The Game of Draughts column edited by A.J. Donaldson provides printed board positions — a visually striking collectible element for chess and checkers historians.
🌾 FARM, FIELD & EDITORIAL
Agriculture and Science section — seasonal farming and science notes
"Dying of Cholera" — public health dispatch
The Currency — financial and economic commentary
The Civil Service Reform — political editorial
"Clubs, Clubs" — editorial on the growth and culture of American sporting clubs
"A Multitudinal Offer" — year-end sporting column
"Hunting in Art" — essay on the depiction of field sports in fine art
The Prize Commission on Poultry Programmes
Correspondence from Detroit, Michigan — Fine Short-Barrel shooting dispatch
Answers to Correspondents — reader Q&A on farming, horses, and country life
Rumors of the Day — year-end sporting news roundup
🎭 DRAMATIC & MUSICAL
Patti Milliken section and New York theatrical notes close out the cultural calendar of 1869.
🗞️ PERIOD ADVERTISEMENTS — A TIME CAPSULE IN THEMSELVES
Tiffany & Co. — final holiday stock announcement, store open until January 1st
Dunscomb — pleasure and trotting harness, 7 Great Jones Street, New York
Hoover, Calhoun & Co. — importers of saddlery & harness, 363 Broadway
Dusenbury & Van Duser — carriage manufacturers, light road wagons, buggies, phaetons, 135 & 137 Chrystie Street, New York
Dubois' Wagon — Peter Dubois' Son, track sulkies and skeleton wagons, 203 Greene Street
Barker & Hamlins City Auction Mart — regular sales of horses, carriages, and harnesses, S.W. corner Broadway & 39th Street
Boyd Breech-Loading Arms Co. — Francis Boyd, Treasurer, safety, accuracy, and strength of range
J. Riick — harness, saddles, blankets, whips, collars, and robes, 436 Sixth Avenue
Mammoth Billiard Establishment — Phélan & Collender, 34 tables, 261, 263 & 265 Washington Street, Brooklyn
Dr. A.J. Hopkins Magical Healing Powder — veterinary remedy
Laflin & Rand / Hazard Powder Co. — gunpowder
Land Sale — Henderson County, Kentucky, $100,000 capital prize, authorized by Kentucky legislature, Masonic Temple Louisville, 511 prizes
Western Stock Journal — Louisville, Kentucky
The Dixie Farmer — Nashville, Tennessee
The National Chronicle — Official Base Ball Organ
The Western Ruralist — Louisville, Kentucky
Phrenological Journal / Family Magazine
Wheeler's Patent Anti-Snow Ball Pad
Dexter and Kentucky — Chromos for sale
🔍 CONDITION & TRANSPARENCY 🔍
Completeness: Complete final issue of Volume IX, including the full Contents of Volume IX index page.
Authenticity: Guaranteed original letterpress printing from December 31, 1869 — not a reproduction.
Condition Report: Consistent with its 156-year age — natural toning throughout, with some edge wear and fraying at margins as visible in photographs. Text, chess diagrams, and the volume index remain legible. A strong year-closing example of this scarce and rarely seen sporting weekly.
📦 SHIPPING & PRESERVATION 📦
Housed in an acid-free archival folder with Mylar overlay to protect the 156-year-old newsprint
Flat-shipped with heavy-duty reinforcement
Fully tracked for your peace of mind
🏷️ TAGS
1869 Turf Field and Farm, New Year's Eve 1869 Newspaper, Last Issue of the Decade 1869, Fox Hunting Victorian Literature, Early Baseball History 1869, Buckeye Club Cincinnati Racing 1870, Horse Racing Newspaper 1869, Chess Column 1869, Draughts Column 1869, Gilded Age Sporting Journal, Tiffany Holiday Advertisement 1869, Complete Volume Index 1869, Victorian Field Sports, Antique Newspaper 1869, 19th Century Americana
1869 Turf Field and Farm — New Year's Eve, Fox Hunting, Baseball, Full Year Index, Dec 31
$55.55