The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, serves as the leading museum and symbolic center of baseball history in the United States. Founded in 1939 by Stephen Carlton Clark, it preserved the sport’s artifacts and archives, mounted exhibitions, and oversaw election to baseball’s most famous honor. Early promotion relied on the unproven claim that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, helping link the institution to the village. Its selection process has strongly influenced debates over greatness and memory, while later expansions, including a research library, traveling exhibitions, and renovations, strengthened its role as both archive and public attraction.