William M. Fischer, an accountant by profession, was an avid tennis
enthusiast. Starting in 1897 he built a varied collection of over
2,000 items including books, scrap books, periodicals, yearbooks,
newspaper clippings, photographs, souvenir programs and
memorabilia. In addition to the printed materials available, he
kept accounts in large bookkeeping ledgers on players' personal
data and game performance. Two of the earliest monographs on the
game of tennis date back to C.F. Peile's
Lawn Tennis as a
Game of Skill, 1884, and
Lawn Tennis by James
Dwight, 1886. The collection's emphasis is on material through the
early part of the century up to 1955. Several of the early books
are signed by one or more tennis players. The archival aspect and
the scope of this collection makes it a particularly valuable
working collection for historical and sociological studies of the
game.
The collection since Mr. Fischer's death has had a few temporary
stops. In 1947 through a trust indenture the title to the library
went from Mr. Fischer to a board of trustees. In 1964 the trustees
gave the collection to New York University (Bronx campus) with the
understanding that it would be kept intact and made available for
reference to serious students of the game. Ten years later NYU
disposed of the collection to The New York Public Library where no
separate facilities could be provided for it, nor did they
guarantee keeping the collection intact. In 1976 the trustees
initiated procedures to remove the books from NYPL, and finally in
April 1978 the William M. Fischer Lawn Tennis Collection was
officially opened in St. John's University Library, its permanent
home.
Since its opening, the splendid collection of over 1000
photographs has generated the most research interest. They have
been used to illustrate encyclopedias and tennis history books
currently being published.
In addition to scholars interested in this popular sport,
fiction writers have also visited the collection in search of
historical settings and interesting characters from the pages of
periodicals. The several drawers of vertical file folders hold
invaluable treasures for students in search of original documents:
letters, score cards, minutes of meetings and an unpublished novel.
Fifty years of newspaper clippings carefully pasted into notebooks
make it possible to follow a player's career with a minimum of
research. Some of the memorabilia, a silver cup, several medals and
a few of Bill Fischer's personal effects, bring a personal touch to
the collection.