Category Archives: Librarian

Bob Henderson (Librarian.  Born, South Shields, England, Dec. 25, 1888; died, Hartford, CT, Aug. 18, 1985.)  Coming to New York as a youth, Robert William Henderson joined the staff of the New York Public Library in 1911.  Henderson became engaged by the history of sports, particularly baseball.  He wrote a monograph in 1939 that debunked the myth that Gen. Abner Doubleday invented the game a century earlier in Cooperstown, N.Y.  In 1947, he published a book, Ball, Bat, and Bishop, which traced the ancient origins of baseball and antecedent games.  Henderson retired from the Public Library in 1953.  He was also the librarian for New York’s famed Racquet & Tennis Club (1914-73), where he created an exceptional small library with an emphasis on baseball and the racquet sports.