Cracking open a fresh can of tennis balls before play can feel as invigorating as popping the cork on a champagne bottle before a celebration.
Did you know tennis balls haven't always been packaged in pressurized cans?
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Tennis ball containers have changed over the decades and now the International Tennis Hall of Fame examines that evolution in a new digital exhibit.
Tins, Cans, and Cartons is the Hall's fascinating look back at the history of tennis ball packaging. Check out the digital exhibit here.
Staff of the Newport, Rhode Island-based Hall of Fame came up with the concept after seeing visitors often stop to browse a vintage tennis ball container case near the entrance of the museum.
"In our museum, there is a floor-to-ceiling case that displays hundreds of vintage ball containers," International Tennis Hall of Fame Museum director Doug Stark said. "We see that it is consistently a spot where museum visitors love to stop and peruse the collection. Creating a digital exhibit provides an opportunity for tennis fans around the world to interact with the museum collection and explore these unique pieces of tennis history."
Among the more than 600 unqiue containers in the exhibit include 12-ball boxes and cartons from the early 1900s to the first pressurized tennis ball can created by Wilson in 1920 to tennis ball cans bearing the endorsement of players ranging from Rod Laver to Pancho Gonzalez to Lew Hoad to Don Budge to Roger Federer.
"The containers are striking and different from what we are accustomed to today," Stark said. "Each also showcases that era in tennis' evolution and historical periods of time. The colors, fonts, featured players, even the materials that are used are very much a sign of the times from when that container was created. The containers provide an opportunity to examine the broad span of tennis history."
Photo credit: International Tennis Hall of Fame