This is an original stock certificate from the Boston American League Base-Ball Club, dated August 5, 1911. Printed in green, signed by club president John I. Taylor, the certificate features a shield flanked by two allegorical figures with ornate decorative borders.

Certificate number 26, representing 100,000 shares of capital stock, issued to John R. Turner and signed by club president John I. Taylor, with treasurer Hugh A. McBreen countersigning. Cancellation stamps are visible, indicating this certificate was formally redeemed. You will receive the exact piece shown. As with all historical documents, time has given this certificate its own character, a one-of-a-kind from 1911 showing age-appropriate toning and minor edge wear.

If you know Red Sox history, you know.

Taylor is the man who named the Boston Red Sox. In December 1907, when Boston's National League club quietly dropped red stockings from their new uniforms, Taylor moved instantly. He claimed the color, personally redesigned the uniforms, and renamed his franchise. The Sporting News captured the moment plainly: "It was consequently up to John I. Taylor to re-christen his bunch, and he has done so effectively." There was no committee, no fan vote, no marketing agency. One man made the call. Every pennant race, every World Series, every sold-out night at Fenway since 1908 echoes that single decision.

History has been complicated about Taylor as an owner. He was the youngest son of Charles H. Taylor, publisher of the Boston Globe, and his father bought the team largely to give him something to do. He clashed with league president Ban Johnson, made questionable trades, and was widely considered more of a Boston socialite than a serious baseball executive. Frederick Lieb, in his history of the franchise, called Taylor "the worst enemy of his own teams."

Despite everything, what Taylor actually built is impossible to dismiss. He signed Tris Speaker, Harry Hooper, and Duffy Lewis, arguably the greatest outfield trio of the dead-ball era, two of whom went to the Hall of Fame. He recruited the young core that would power the dynasty just ahead. He chose the Fenway neighborhood, oversaw the land acquisition, announced the new ballpark on June 24, 1911, just six weeks before this certificate was signed, and broke ground that September. When he sold half the club that same month to fund construction, he structured the deal so his family retained ownership of the land and the park itself, collecting $30,000 a year in rent from every subsequent ownership group through 1919. Even as he stepped back, his fingerprints stayed on everything.

Fenway Park opened April 20, 1912. The Red Sox won the World Series that fall. Then again in 1915, 1916, and 1918. Four championships in seven years, on the foundation Taylor assembled and in the stadium his family built. When a 19-year-old pitcher named Babe Ruth arrived from Baltimore in July 1914, he stepped into an organization and a ballpark that John I. Taylor had created. The dynasty that would later make Ruth's sale to the Yankees one of sports history's most infamous transactions — and curse Boston fans for 86 years, was Taylor's dynasty first.

This certificate, signed in August 1911, is from the last weeks of his presidency. Ground had just been broken on the name he had chosen. The park he had imagined was rising from the Fenway dirt. He would be gone from the top office within weeks. This is one of the final documents he signed as the man in charge of it all.

Stock certificates from professional baseball's founding era are among the rarest, significant to sports memorabilia collectors and scripophily enthusiasts.

Offered as a collectible.