"One Life: Babe Ruth," One-Room Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery - Jun 24, 2016 - May 21, 2017

[DonRocks]

I went to see the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Exhibition today, and stumbled upon a must for any sports fans at the National Portrait Gallery: "One Life: Babe Ruth" - a one-room exhibit featuring Babe Ruth from his days as a pitcher in the teens, up to his Farewell Address on Apr 27, 1947 at Yankee Stadium.

Unless you're a Bambino fanatic, there will be things in this room that you've never before seen, including a 1930 cardboard box which was the package for a pair of Babe Ruth-brand underwear.

I've seen many, many pictures of Ruth on the internet, but there's something about seeing them in person, some blown up to very large size, that makes the entire experience different. One takeaway for me was just how slender Ruth was during his Red Sox days - he always had a huge head, but it's almost as if Ruth was the first-ever bobble-head doll, for real.

These don't have anything to do with the exhibition, but here are some other interesting webpages featuring photos of the Sultan of Swat:

Jun 29, 2012 - "An American Icon: Extremely Rare Colour Photos of Babe Ruth Show the Bronx Bomber in a New Light" on dailymail.co.uk

Jan 6, 2014 - "Babe Ruth: Color Photos of an Ailing Legend" by Ben Cosgrove on time.com

Jul 11, 2014 - "Rare Photos of Babe Ruth" on si.com

The exhibit is on the east (7th Street) side of the museum, on the first floor - unless you're a diehard fan, "One Life: Babe Ruth" isn't worth a special trip, but it's required viewing if you're already at the gallery.