born March 28, 1899, in St. Louis, Missouri. Scion of the famous brewing family, Busch served as Chairman of the Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. from 1946-1975. During his tenure, the company his grandfather established emerged as the largest brewery in the world. Busch's grandfather Adolphus Busch came to America from Germany in 1857, settling in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1866, he founded the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company with his father-in-law, Eberhard Anheuser. Busch discovered a way to pasteurize beer, allowing national distribution of his product. By 1901, Anheuser-Busch's brewery was the nation's largest. Busch also developed a beer lighter than those commonly sold at the time. This beer, named Budweiser, ultimately became the world's best seller.
In February 1953, August Anheuser Busch, Jr. rescued a St. Louis tradition by purchasing the St. Louis Cardinals. Busch's decision was a relief to local baseball fans threatened with the prospect of seeing their team move to Milwaukee or Houston. He became a familiar figure at Cardinal games, entering the Busch Memorial Stadium behind a team of the brewing company's famous Clydesdale horses.
Among the baseball greats associated with the Cardinals are legendary pitcher Cy Young, who played for the team from 1899-1901, and Branch Rickey. Manager, coach, and executive, Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945.
The American Memory collections are rich in resources pertaining to this national pastime:
- Search on the word brewery in any of the following collections to find material related to the manufacture of malt beverages.
- History of the American West, 1860-1920
- Washington As It Was, 1923-1959
- Built in America: Historic Building and Engineering, 1933-Present
- Examine early baseball cards in Baseball Cards, 1887-1914. Search on Cardinals to view over 60 cards featuring players from that team. Or, search by Player, Team, League, City, or Card Set.
- Enjoy a Bibliography of Published Baseball Music and Songs posted by the Library's Performing Arts Reading Room.
- Learn more about Rickey and Robinson in Breaking the Color Line: 1940-1946, part of the Special Presentation Baseball, the Color Line, and Jackie Robinson in Jackie Robinson and other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s.
- Search on Busch or brewing industry in Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America, 1935-1955 to see a series of architectural photographs of commercial buildings owned by the Busch family in New York and Massachusetts.
- Rickey's scouting report on Don Drysdale is featured in Words and Deeds in American History.
- Search on the keyword baseball in Emergence of Advertising in America, 1850-1920 to find a variety of interesting items. See, for example, colorful images of William "Bill" Gleason and Curtis "Curt" Welch, two nineteenth century St. Louis Browns players, who were included in the scrapbook of Annie Grace Clarke. Click on each scrapbook image for an enlargement.
