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Research dossier · People & Ideas

William Washington (baseball)

American baseball player

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ8020047 ↗
Source-derived summary

William Washington (born 1885) was an American Negro leagues catcher for several years before the founding of the first Negro National League.

In 1909, Washington played catcher for all but one game in a 56-game tour with the Chicago Union Giants. The Giants won all but 10 games in that 56-game tour. During that tour, he caught for Clarence Lytle, Jimmie Lyons, Bennie Lyons, Harry Hyde, Mack Ramsey, and Wesley Prior.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “William Washington (baseball)” as american baseball player. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1885, 1909—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1885. The account is most persuasive where William, Washington and baseball can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american baseball player. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8020047. VIAF identifies the subject as 95787007. The Library of Congress control number is n87896258. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1885 and 1909.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William Washington (baseball)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Washington (baseball) primary sources, William Washington (baseball) archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Washington (baseball)”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William Washington (baseball)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.