Lobby Case Exhibition on Moe Berg

Update — Back by pop­u­lar demand! The Moe Berg Lobby Case Exhi­bi­tion can be once again viewed in the lobby of the See­ley G. Mudd Man­u­script Library through August 31st, 2012.

Pri­mar­ily known as a Major League catcher and coach, Mor­ris “Moe” Berg was also a spy for the Office of Strate­gic Ser­vices (OSS) in World War II, as well as a lawyer, lin­guist, and Prince­ton grad­u­ate. As a mem­ber of the class of 1923, Berg excelled scholas­ti­cally and ath­let­i­cally by grad­u­at­ing with hon­ors in Mod­ern Lan­guages (he stud­ied Greek, French, Span­ish, Ital­ian, Ger­man, and San­skrit), and play­ing first base and short­stop for the Prince­ton Tigers. While his bat­ting aver­age was low– Berg inspired a Major League scout to utter the phrase, “Good field, no hit”- he was known at Prince­ton for his strong arm and sound base­ball instincts.

The exhibit high­lights the var­ied roles of Berg in its pre­sen­ta­tion of Prince­ton mem­o­ra­bilia from the class of 1923, Berg base­ball cards, and other mate­r­ial culled from Mudd’s two col­lec­tions on Moe Berg: The Moe Berg Col­lec­tion (1937–2007), and the newly acquired Dr. and Mrs. Arnold Bre­it­bart Col­lec­tion on Moe Berg (1934–1933). Also on dis­play is a 1959 base­ball signed by Berg and other Major League play­ers, on loan from Arnold Bre­it­bart. The Moe Berg exhibit can be located in the lobby of the See­ley G. Mudd Man­u­script Library, and was orig­i­nally on dis­play until August 31, 2011.


[i] Daw­id­off, Nicholas. The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mys­te­ri­ous Life of Moe Berg. New York: Pan­theon, 1994.