Offered here is one of less than a dozen known surviving examples of Sol White’s “History of Colored Base Ball”. 3.75x6.25" w/128 bw pages. This rarity was written and published back in 1907 at a time when there was very little information or documentation available to tell the story of the African American baseball players of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Prior to writing this book, Sol White was an African American middle infielder who started out his playing career with the integrated Bellaire Baseball Club back in 1884, subsequently playing for the integrated Wheeling Baseball Club in 1887 and later playing for several different versions of the Cuban Giants of the 1890s. Just after the turn of the century, White starred for the Philadelphia Giants, playing with future Hall of Famers, Rube Foster, Frank Grant and Pete Hill. The following is a brief recap of some of the historical content found in this guide: Back in the late 1870s, if an African American wanted to play baseball, he was forced to join an otherwise all-white baseball club. During the 1878 season, Bud Fowler became the first professional black baseball player. Shortly thereafter, in the early 1880s, Moses “Fleetwood” Walker was credited with being the first African American to play Major League baseball, again on an integrated team where he was the only black ballplayer. This same scenario carried on throughout the 1880s until a gentleman’s agreement was reached in 1889 between all of the professional baseball clubs of the day which strictly prohibited African American ballplayers from signing professional baseball contracts. Fortunately for the black ballplayer, an all-black baseball team named the Cuban Giants was established during the 1885 season. These players traveled throughout the eastern U.S. taking on all comers in barnstorming fashion. As the 1880s wore on, more and more African American baseball teams began to spring up across the American landscape. Many of these early black ball teams are detailed here in Sol White’s masterpiece, which is largely responsible for much of what we know about these early black ballplayers and ball clubs. What makes this publication even more appealing to both Negro League historians as well as collectors of Negro League baseball memorabilia is the magnificent photos which are interspersed throughout the book. In total, there are over 50 images of early black ballplayers and ball clubs and, in many cases, these player images are the only ones in existence for the vast majority of those individuals pictured. Key full page player images include: Sol White, Andrew “Rube” Foster, Frank Grant, Pete Hill, Charles Grant & Grant “Home Run” Johnson. Full team photo pages include: three for the Philadelphia Giants (one for their 1906 World's Champions team), Cuban X-Giants, Royal Giants, Royal Poinciana. Also includes important statistical information. Cover has professional restoration as some of both the front and back covers was missing. About 70% of original front cover remains including all of the title text and Sol's photo. The rest has been reconstructed in same black/red color scheme but missing text at bottom was not redone (same goes for inside front cover Spalding ad). Blank back cover is about 85% original. Also has some restoration to first two pages (bit of text missing from bottom "Edited By" area of title page), few additional tiny corner tips replace on few first pages. However, nothing of consequence is affected on these pages. The pages overall are bright, clean and supple w/only slightest aging. As restored, still displays nicely and pages themselves are overall VF. This is the first and most important book ever published on the Negro Leagues, a must have for any serious collector of this historic material. Past sales of this book have exceeded $20,000.