Hand made poster from the Washington Capitals Stanley Cup Parade

Hand made posters made by the donors, Tom Blonkowski and Nicole Svajlenka for use at the Washington Capitals Stanley Cup Parade held in Washington, DC on June 12, 2018. One of two posters held together by a red and white striped string. The poster is made from white foam core and has magazine cut outs of Alex Ovechkin kissing the Stanley Cup and 'ONE MORE TIME [/] We are [/] the [/] Champions' printed in blue, red and gold. On the reverse there is a montage of players and the coach, Barry Trotz holding the Cup with 'PLEASE [/] DON'T GO,' printed in red and blue. According to the donors, "'We Are the Champions' refers to the Saturday, June 9th visit by members of the Washington Capitals to the Georgetown waterfront with the Stanley Cup, launching an epic weekend of celebrating in the streets of DC, which we joined to see the Cup. Every few minutes Alex Ovechkin would lead his fellow teammates and the fans gathered in renditions of "We Are the Champions," starting each one off by saying, "Okay, one more time . . " 'Please Don't Go' includes photos of the Caps' unrestricted free agents, including Coach Barry Trotz. These players were instrumental in bringing home the Cup and we would be sad to see them depart for another team. Hopefully they caught a glimpse and it helped them make up their minds to stay."

Curators often attend events in order to collect objects that pertain to a particular event. In this case, fan paraphernalia was collected from the Washington Capitals Stanley Cup Parade celebration in 2019 to document the whole sports experience. Fan objects can tell quite a story about the fan, the team, the sport and what’s happening in society at a particular time. It also speaks to what the user or maker of that object was feeling at the time. Why did they carry that particular object on that particular day. These posters conveyed the messages of these two fans in pictures and phrases that meant something special to each other as they watched the games together. Looking at them without the donor's context and explanation their meaning is lost but that is what makes each fan creation so unique and special.

The Washington Capitals were founded in 1974 as an expansion team and are a member of the Metropolitan Division of the eastern Conference in the National Hockey League. They played at the Capitals Center in Landover, Maryland until 1997 when they made the move to the Verizon Center located in the heart of Washington, DC. Ted Leonsis bought the team in 1999, drafted high profile players and began winning. Since 2009 the Capitals have won eleven division titles, three President’s trophies and in 2018, finally won the elusive Stanley Cup Championship.

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