About the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum Collection
Our collection contains approximately 15,000 artifacts from the history of baseball in Canada, including baseballs, bats, uniforms, photographs, caps, archival documents, and more. We are also fortunate to have over 10,000 books and other published materials within the Harry Simmons Memorial Library.
Within the collection we represent active Canadian players, Canadian teams, and the important events in baseball history that have impacted or been impacted by Canadians. We also have over 160 CBHFM inductees represented within the collection.
We have the collection that we do thanks to the generous donations of the teams, players and professionals who are represented within the collection. We are also grateful to receive artifact donations from the public.
Do you have an object, photograph, etc. that you are interested in donating to the museum? As we have a strict collections mandate, we ask that you please first read below to see if your artifact would be a good fit for our collection. We appreciate all offers of donation to our collection, but not all can be accepted.
What artifacts do we collect?
We collect artifacts which:
- Represent baseball in Canada
- Represent a baseball event held in Canada
- Represent a Canadian athlete participating in baseball at an elite level (does not have to be MLB)
- Represent a Canadian who had a significant influence on baseball
- Relate to an inductee
- Relate to the history of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum
- Are representative of a bat and ball sport other than baseball (eg. softball/teeball artifacts, etc.)
- Are representative of an athlete who is not Canadian and/or did not play in Canada
- Are duplicate of objects we already have in the collection
- Have unknown provenance (we don’t know where the item has come from or who used it)
- Are physically too large for the space we have available
- Are too damaged for us to be able to provide adequate care to the object
- Are offered with conditions to the donation
How do I donate my artifact to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum?
Please email offers of donation to [email protected] and include photographs and details such as where you acquired the object, which Canadian baseball professional it is related to (if applicable), age of the item if known, etc. The more you can tell us, the more likely we will be able to accept your offer.
Do NOT bring your proposed donation to the museum until it has been accepted by the collections department. We are strict about this for a number of reasons, but ultimately it ensures donations are properly handled, and collections staff are available as only they can accept your donation.
What happens if my offer is accepted?
If your offer is accepted we will let you know in our correspondence and invite you to make arrangements to send/deliver the object to CBHFM. We will provide a Deed of Gift to you in person or over email which we require to be filled out for donations (a Deed of Gift transfers ownership of the artifact to CBHFM, as well as copyright if applicable). Once the Deed of Gift is filled out the artifact will officially be part of the collection of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum where it can be enjoyed and studied by future visitors.
What happens if my offer is NOT accepted?
If it is determined that your artifact does not meet the criteria for collecting then we will inform you in our correspondence, and we may be able to suggest an alternative home for your item.
We do occasionally accept items specifically to be sold so that the funds can go back into the care of the collection. If you would like to contribute even though we cannot accept your item into the permanent collection, we can sell it in auction and your funds will go toward ongoing collection care.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will my donation be exhibited?
We cannot guarantee that an object will be exhibited as only a very small percentage of the collection is on display at any one time. We do our best to give every object we have time to be displayed, and sometimes that is through social media or virtual exhibits as an alternative.
Can I come “Visit” an Artifact I donated in the past?
If you give us advance notice (we require a minimum of 5 business days to prepare for this kind of request), we would be happy to pull some previously donated artifacts, or artifacts relevant to your family out of the collection for you to view.
What happens if I decide I’d like my previously donated artifact(s) back?
When you sign a Deed of Gift, you are transferring ownership to the museum, which means we cannot legally return the item to you. For this reason please take careful consideration before making any donations.
I’d like to donate something but with certain conditions attached.
Sorry, we cannot accept donations with conditions attached. It is not something we could feasibly track for our artifacts and promise for donors, so we accept only unconditional donations.
Can I loan you an artifact for temporary display?
We only accept loans in very limited circumstances, such as for a specific display. In these cases we would be reaching out for artifacts.
What if I don’t want to fill out the donation form?
We absolutely require forms be filled out for all donations, otherwise we cannot accept them.
Can I bequeath an artifact(s) to you?
If you are interested in leaving something from your personal collection to CBHFM in your will, we would be happy to accept but would ask that you please still reach out to us when you make that decision to ensure the object is something we will be able to accept. We have received bequeathed objects from family members in the past, and it is a wonderful way to leave a legacy that will be treasured by future baseball lovers.
How will I be credited for my donation?
When objects are displayed we will put the donor’s name with the object on the artifact label (as long as the donor has not asked to remain anonymous). You can request a specific credit line when you fill out the Deed of Gift, especially if the donation is given in memory of someone.
For all other questions related to donating an artifact, please contact [email protected]
