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John "Chick" McCarter local sports scrapbooks
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Held at: Conshohocken Historical Society [Contact Us]120 E. 5th Avenue, Conshohocken, PA, 19428
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Conshohocken Historical Society. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
John "Chick" McCarter (1904-1989) was known as "Mr. Sports" in Conshohocken. A local sports historian, he was an avid collector of newspaper clippings and other memorabilia and co-founded the Conshohocken Hall Sports Hall of Fame in 1973. In 1986 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for his work in keeping an accurate account of Conshohocken sports history. Two years earlier he had been inducted into the Summit Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.
McCarter began collecting clippings about Conshohocken sports history when he was a child. Conshohocken was once nationally known for its sporting prowess, especially in football and basketball. Conshohocken's first football team was organized in 1873, and later it boasted one of the first professional football teams in the country. Other notable Conshohocken teams included: the team of 1896-1905, West Conshohocken's Reliance of 1906-1915, Bob Crawford's A.C. team of 1914-1922, and the Iron Borough team of 1923-1928.
Chick McCarter was married to his wife, Elizabeth (Dewees) McCarter, for over 60 years. He held many different jobs in his lifetime, including bartending and working for Walker Brothers (Conshohocken, Pa.) and Auto Car Company (Exton, Pa.). He was a 67-year member of the Washington Fire Company No. 2, Conshohocken, and attended the First Presbyterian Church of Conshohocken.
Bibliography:
"If There's a Question About Conshohocken, See 'Chick' McCarter." Newspaper clipping, 1979.
"John 'Chick' McCarter, 84; Co-Founder of Conshohocken Sports Hall of Fame." Times Herald March 6, 1989.
Miles, Gary. "Six Are Inducted into Conshohocken Sports Hall." Philadelphia Inquirer, May 5, 1986. Accessed May 18, 2012. http://articles.philly.com/1986-05-05/news/26048829_1_induction-hall-of-fame-organization-graduate-assistant-coach.
This collection is comprised of 12 newspaper clippings scrapbooks focused on sports teams in and around Conshohocken. There are original and copy newspaper clippings dating from about 1920 to 1983.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2011-2012 as part of a pilot project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Conshohocken Historical Society directly for more information.
People
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Conshohocken Historical Society
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Michael Gubicza through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact Conshohocken Historical Society for information about accessing this collection.