American League Base Ball Club of Chicago (Chicago White Sox) - Illinois 1955

Beautiful certificate #51 from the American League Base Ball Club of Chicago issued in 1955. This historic document was printed by Goes Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an eagle. This item has the signatures of the Company's President, Grace R. Comiskey and Secretary, Dorothy Rigney and is over 53 years old. Issued to Grace R. Cominsky under the will of Grace Lu Cominsky, and signed by Grace R. Comiskey on the verso. Ledger mark on left border.


Certificate Vignette

The Chicago White Sox are a Major League baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois. The White Sox are a member of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From 1991 to the present, the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field (previously known as New Comiskey Park).

The "White Sox" name originates from a prominent uniform feature which has since fallen into disuse. They are most prominently nicknamed "the South Siders", differentiating from the North Side dwelling Chicago Cubs, "the Pale Hose", and sometimes by the national media as "the ChiSox", a combination of "Chicago" and "Sox" (as opposed to the BoSox). Other nicknames include "the Go-Go Sox, a reference to 1959 AL Champions, who got that nickname, "the Good Guys", a reference to the team's one time motto "Good guys wear black", coined by Ken "Hawk" Harrelson, and "the Black Sox", the name attributed to the scandal-tainted 1919 team. Most fans refer to the team as simply "the Sox".

One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Chicago in 1901. Then the Chicago White Stockings, after the original White Stockings vacated the name to become the Cubs. At this time, the team inhabited South Side Park. In 1910, the team moved into historic Comiskey Park, which they would inhabit for more than eight decades. It was here that, in 1919, the infamous Black Sox Scandal occurred. Afterwards, the team would endure 88 years of hardship, attributed to the Curse of the Black Sox, that would end when the team won the World Series in 2005.

Following Charles Comiskey's death in 1931, the team continued to be operated by his family – first by his son Louis, then by Louis' widow Grace, and finally by their daughter Dorothy. Not until 1959 did the team pass out of the family (thanks in part to a feud between Dorothy and her brother Chuck) to a new ownership group, led by Bill Veeck, who had previously run both the Cleveland Indians and the St. Louis Browns.

History from Wikipedia and OldCompanyResearch.com (old stock certificate research service).