Contesting the Norm: Women and Professional Sports in Late Nineteenth-Century America

Abstract

Athletic opportunities for females have reached an extent that few women living in the nineteenth century might ever have imagined. For more than two decades the women's 10,000-metre run has been part of the Olympics. Women's wrestling was added at Athens in 2004 and women's boxing competitions will begin at the 2012 London Games. Changing cultural norms, especially those brought forth by ‘women's movements’ of the 1960s as well as the ensuing amazingly successful athletic performances that women attained, have been of the utmost importance. In the United States, as the ‘New Woman” of the late 1800s began to engage in a modest game of golf or tennis, or take a leisurely bicycle ride, the then dominant theme – strenuous physical activity is inimical to a female's health – that had been articulated in books like Edward Clarke's Sex in Education, Or a Fair Chance for Girls (1873) began to be challenged. Few late nineteenth-century women offered a greater challenge than did ‘professional sportswomen’ like pedestriennes Ada Anderson and Exilda La Chapelle, competitive cyclist Louise Armiando, and the boxer Hattie Stewart. Whereas their feats were ignored by more elevated publications like Scribner's Magazine and Outing daily newspapers sometimes could be quite complimentary. The coverage given by Sporting Life (considered by many to be the major sports journal of the times) was somewhat mixed. When it came to baseball (the game that ‘made men men’) Sporting Life was vehemently opposed to any woman engaging in America's ‘national pastime’. So was Albert Spalding, co-founder of the lucrative A.G. Spalding Sporting Goods Company. This article sheds new light upon these and other still too little known matters regarding women who ‘contested the norm’ in late nineteenth-century America.

Keywords:

• women
• professional
• strenuous sports

Notes

1. These numbers are set forth on the International Olympic Committee's ‘Factsheet: Women in the Olympic Movement’. See http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Reference_documents_Factsheets/Women_in_Olympic_Movement.pdf. Other sites specify slightly higher numbers. See for example http://www.olympic.org/Documents/women_participation_figures_en.pdf; and http://www.olympic.org/women-and-sport/beijing-scores-record-womens-participation (accessed 14 November 2011).

2. For a useful overview of these two sports, especially since the enactment of Title IX of the 1972 Education Act, see Fields, Female Gladiators, chapter 6 and 7.

3. In the United States most institutions of higher learning receive some form of federal financial funding. Title IX of the Act stated: ‘No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance’. The developments had a positive influence upon high school as well as college programmes. According to a recent posting, before the law was enacted ‘fewer than 300,000 girls participated in high school [interscholastic] sports, compared with 3.5 million boys. By 2007–08, the number of girls participating had grown to 3 million’. See http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/6790943/group-sues-title-ix-high-school-enforcement (accessed 25 August 2011).

4. Smith-Rosenberg, Disorderly Conduct, especially 11–13.

5. Cahn, Coming on Strong, chapter 1. Although brief, the chapter ably sets the stage for Cahn's study of developments in women's sports from the 1890s to the 1990s. The quote is on page 15.

6. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Open_%28tennis%29; and http://www.usga.org/press_room/USGA-Story/ (accessed 20 August 2011).

7. Pedestrienne was the term frequently used in the late 1800s to refer to a female pedestrian.

 8. Clarke, Sex in Education, Or a Fair Chance for Girls.

 9. These and related matters are nicely analysed in Vertinsky, The Eternally Wounded Woman, especially chapter 1.

10. Howe, Sex and Education, 32–44; 52–69; and passim.

11. Parkman's (pp. 510–517) and Stanton's (pp. 517–524) comments are appended to Lewis, ‘The Health of American Women’.

12. Parkman, ‘The Woman Question’. Although the title might suggest that Parkman was writing only about women, he repeatedly compared what he deemed to be the innate qualities of men with those of women. The specific quote appears on page 304.

13. Henry W. Slocum, Jr., ‘Lawn Tennis As a Game for Women’, Outing, 1(1889), 294.

14. Banta, Imaging American Women, 83–91. The appearance of the two-wheel ‘safety bicycle’ had made it possible for growing numbers of ‘genteel ladies’ to engage in excursions outdoors.

15. Ibid., xxvii–xxxi; and 50–52.

16. Beard and Beard, The American Girls Handy Book, 1.

17. See, for example, Brailsford, Sport, Time, and Society, 133–134; Park, ‘From “Genteel Diversions” to “Bruising Peg”’, 31–33; Boulton, The Amusements of Old London, 30–31.

18. Radford, The Celebrated Captain Barclay; Radford, ‘Women’s Foot-Races in the 18^th and 19^th Centuries’.

19. Guttmann, Women's Sports, chapter. 7; Shaulis, ‘Pedestriennes; Sears, Running Through the Ages; Hargreaves, Heroines of Sport; and Hargreaves, Sporting Females.

20. ‘Swimming’, The Times, 5 September 1875 and 20 September 1875; and New York Clipper Almanac for 1876 (New York: Frank Queen, 1876), 46. Webb had swum from Dover, England to Calais, France in 21 hours and 45 minutes on 24 and 25 August 1875. Beckwith completed her swim on 1 September; and Parker hers on 18 September. See also, ‘The Mermaid of the Thames’, Spirit of the Times, 9 October 1875.

21. ‘A Plucky English Girl’, Spirit of the Times, 22 July 1876; and ‘Feminine Aquatics’, Spirit of the Times, 12 August 1876.

22. ‘Ladies Swimming for a Prize’, Sporting Life, 13 August 1883; ‘Swimming: Captain Webb's Fate’, New York Times, 6 August 1883; ‘Swimming on the East River’, Sporting Life, 10 September 1884; ‘A Naid Queen’, National Police Gazette, 28 December 1889; ‘A Pretty Swimmer’, National Police Gazette, 3 May 1890; and ‘Girl to Swim Niagara's Rapids’, National Police Gazette, 17 August 1901.

23. The Tenth Annual Regatta of the Empire City Rowing Club was announced in the New York Times (26 September 1871). Available at: http://www.northnet.org/stlawrencea auw/nystime.htm.

24. The 1867 race was noted in an article entitled ‘Women in the Prize Ring’, National Police Gazette, 14 September 1892; ‘Womans Rights’, The Times, 9 August 1870; ‘Summer Recreations: The Girl of the Period as an Oars-man’, New York Clipper, 20 August 1870; ‘Tenth Annual Regatta of the Empire City Rowing Club’, New York Times, 26 September 1871; ‘Tenth Annual Regatta of the Empire City Rowing Club’, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 14 October 1871; and ‘The Girls’ Regatta', National Police Gazette, 5 October 1878.

25. ‘Women at the Oar’, Sporting Life, 20 August 1884; and ‘The Austin Regatta’, Frank Leslie's Weekly, 5 December 1895. For sports in early women's colleges, see Spears and Swanson, History of Sport and Physical Activity in the United States, 124–128.

26. ‘The Champion Bicyclists’, National Police Gazette, 10 May 1884. See also, ‘Beauty on Wheels’, National Police Gazette, 1 September 1883.

27. ‘Hattie Stewart’, National Police Gazette, 17 May 1884; ‘Female Boxers’, National Police Gazette, 11 March 1886; and ‘Women in the Prize Ring’, National Police Gazette, 14 September 1892.

28. ‘Gordon and Lozay’, National Police Gazette, 20 January 1900; ‘Four Hot Rounds’, National Police Gazette, 8 December 1900; ‘They Are All Boxers’, National Police Gazette, 26 January 1901; and ‘Texas Mamie’, National Police Gazette, 28 July 1906.

29. See, for example, Sears, Running Through the Ages, chapter 5 (especially pages 129–149); Lucas and Smith, Saga of American Sport, 97–98; and 165–66; Lucas, ‘Pedestrianism and the Struggle for the Sir John Astley Belt’; and ‘Sir John Astley’, Sporting Mirror 1 (1881): 3–7.

30. A book canvasser was a door-to-door salesperson.

31. ‘Athletics’, Spirit of the Times, 19 February 1876; ‘Female Pedestrianism’, Spirit of the Times, 11 November 1876; ‘Female Endurance’, Spirit of the Times, 25 November 1876; ‘Pedestrianism: The Female Walkers’, Chicago Tribune, 30 January 1876; ‘Pedestrianism: The Walking Women’, Chicago Tribune, 3 February 1876; ‘Pedestrianism: Von Hillern-Marshall’, Chicago Tribune, 4 February 1876; ‘An Interesting Walk’, Spirit of the Times, 28 October 1876; ‘Female Pedestrianism’, Spirit of the Times, 18 November 1876; ‘Female Endurance’, Spirit of the Times, 25 November 1876; and ‘Athletics’, Spirit of the Times, 19 February 1876.

32. ‘Pedestrianism’, The Times, 1 September 1876.

33. James, Practical Training; ‘Lenardsen, The Trainer: Deserting His Wife and Children for a Female Pedestrian’, New York Times, 28 April 1879. See also ‘Wins Prize With 500 Miles’, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 October 1879.

34. ‘Novel Pedestrian Contest’, National Police Gazette, 14 December 1878; ‘The Female Pedestrian’, New York Times, 9 January 1879; and ‘Pedestrianism: Madame Anderson's Walk of a Quarter Miles Every Five Minutes for Six Days’, The Times, 26 August 1878.

35. ‘Walking and Running’, New York Herald, 2 January 1879; ‘Mme. Anderson’, New York Herald, 11 January 1879; ‘The Female Pedestrian’, New York Times, 12 January 1879; ‘Walking Day and Night’, New York Times 13 January 1879; ‘A Great Pedestrian Feat’, New York Times, 14 January 1879; and ‘Madame Anderson Wins’, New York Herald, 14 January 1879. (Anderson had walked a quarter of a mile every 15 minutes over 28 consecutive days.)

36. ‘Madame Anderson Wins’, The World, 14 January 1879; and ‘A Walking Wonder’, Boston Globe, 14 January 1879.

37. ‘Madame Anderson's Plucky Walk’, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1 February 1879. Anderson was accompanied by her husband, a stout German named Foley, and her attendant Miss Sparrow, who had also accompanied her from England.

38. ‘Another Female Pedestrian’, New York Times, 26 January 1879; ‘The Mania for Walking’, New York Times, 2 February 1879; and‘Miss Bartell's Walk Ended’, New York Times, 3 February 1879. It was said that the event had been arranged by the wife of Bartell's trainer John Hughes (a rival pedestrian to Daniel O'Leary, an Irish-American who had competed against Weston).

39. ‘Four Rivals of Mme. Anderson Walking’, New York Times, 13 February 1879; ‘Walking in Six Cities’, New York Times, 14 February 1879; and ‘The Female Pedestrian’, New York Times, 4 April, 1879.

40. ‘Muscular Movements: Miss Reynolds’ Ramble Around Revere Hall', Boston Globe, 18 February 1879; ‘The Muscular Mania’, Boston Globe, 19 February 1879; ‘Miss Reynolds Pluckily Plodding Along’, Boston Globe, 21 February 1879; ‘The Mania’, Boston Globe, 23 February 1879; ‘Miss Reynolds and Her Walk at Revere Hall’, Boston Globe, 23 February 1879; and ‘Lady Pedestrians’, Boston Globe, 28 February 1879. A match between Miss Bessie Krohn (recently arrived from Copenhagen) and a local Bostonian named Miss Sherman also was contemplated.

41. ‘Pedestrianism’, Chicago Tribune, 10 February 1879; ‘Pedestrianism’, Chicago Tribune 12 February 1879; and ‘Pedestrianism’, Chicago Tribune 14 February 1879. (La Chapelle's diet consisted largely of beef tea and eggs. When the pedestrienne seemed to be flagging, her physician recommended ‘sherry and egg’ as a stimulant.).

42. ‘Female Walkers at Philadelphia’, Baltimore American, 24 March 1879; ‘The Walking Women’, Spirit of the Times, 19 April 1879; and ‘The Women's Walking Match’, New York Times, 1 April 1879; and ‘The Cruel Tramp Ended’, New York Times, 3 April 1879.

43. ‘Miss Bela Killbury, Female Pedestrian’, National Police Gazette, 15 March 1879.

44. ‘Pedestrianism Gone Mad’, New York Times, 14 February 1879; and ‘The Walkers Falling Off’, New York Times, 18 April 1879.

45. ‘The Lady Contestants’, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 October 1879; ‘Striding to Success’, San Francisco Chronicle, 14 October 1879; ‘Sport in California’, Spirit of the Times, 1 November 1879; ‘Pedestrian Notes’ Spirit of the Times, 4 October 1879; ‘Pedestrian Notes’, Spirit of the Times, 8 November 1879; ‘Pedestrian Notes’, Spirit of the Times, 6 December, 1879; ‘Alleged Sport in California’, Spirit of the Times, 31 January 1880; and ‘Pedestrian Notes’, Spirit of the Times, 15 May 1880. For an example of such cartoons, see the last page of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 15 February 1879.

46. ‘Madame du Pree’, National Police Gazette, 12 November 1881; ‘Amy Howard's Great Walk’, National Police Gazette, 15 July 1882; and ‘Pedestrianism Abroad’, Sporting Life, 9 April 1884. According to the 17 October 1884 Sporting Life, Bella Killbury had just received money for winning a six-day race at Louisville.

47. ‘The Walking Women’, Spirit of the Times, 5 April 1879.

48. ‘The Pretty Pedestrians’, National Police Gazette, 12 April 1879.

49. ‘A Stupid Sport’, Saturday Review, 25 January 1879, 114–115.

50. ‘Miss Elsa Von Blumen’, National Police Gazette, 2 September 1882; and ‘The Champion Bicyclists’, National Police Gazette, 10 May 1884. See also, ‘Beauty on Wheels’, National Police Gazette, 1 September 1 1883; and Richie, King of the Road.

51. ‘Bicycle vs. Horses’, Sporting Life, 13 August 1884; ‘The Lady Beaten’, Sporting Life, 26 November 1884; and ‘The Wheel’, Sporting Life, 31 December 1884.

52. ‘Fair Laundress in a Race’, National Police Gazette, 4 November 1899; ‘Hot Scorcher’, National Police Gazette, 27 May 1889; and ‘Bicyclist Lottie Stanley’, National Police Gazette, 27 April 1889. The New York Clipper Almanac included information about contests like sawing logs in its Miscellaneous Records column. For British entries, see the New York Clipper Almanac for 1900.

53. ‘It Wasn't In Earnest’, National Police Gazette, 1 February 1902.

54. ‘Battle Between Fair Pugilists’, National Police Gazette, 12 October 1878; ‘Sundry Sports’, Chicago Tribune, 9 February 1879; ‘Miss Alice Jennings, Champion Female Boxer’, National Police Gazette, 15 April 1882; and ‘Daisy Daly, Female Boxer’, National Police Gazette, 10 February 1883.

55. ‘Miss Lena Aberle's Alleged Pugilistic Exploit’, National Police Gazette, 15 March 1879; ‘Two Beautiful “Sluggers’”, National Police Gazette, 4 March 1882; ‘Female Boxers’, National Police Gazette, 11 March 1885; ‘Pugilistic Females’, National Police Gazette, 5 October 1889; and ‘She Landed Hard’, National Police Gazette, 6 April 1901.

56. ‘Hattie Stewart’, National Police Gazette, 17 May 1884; ‘Women in the Prize Ring’, National Police Gazette, 14 September 1892; ‘Anna Lewis’, National Police Gazette, 25 October 1884; ‘A Female Boxer’, National Police Gazette, 16 November 1889; ‘Colored Female Boxers’, National Police Gazette, 6 September 1890; and ‘Miss Hatti Leslie, The Late Champion Female Boxer’, National Police Gazette, 8 October 1892. See also, ‘Female Boxers’, National Police Gazette, 11 March 1886.

57. ‘Gordon and Lozay’, National Police Gazette, 20 January 1900; ‘Four Hot Rounds’, National Police Gazette, 8 December 1900; ‘They Are All Boxers’, National Police Gazette, 26 January 1901; and ‘Texas Mamie’, National Police Gazette, 28 July 1906.

58. ‘Letter’, National Police Gazette, 28 March 1891, cited in Smith and Barry Smith, The National Police Gazette, 134–135; ‘Miss Josie Wohlford’, National Police Gazette, 28 February 1891; ‘Miss Josie Jordan's Remarkable Physical Development’, National Police Gazette, 7 November 1896; ‘Observe the Lady's Muscles’, National Police Gazette, 9 November 1901; ‘International Women's Wrestling Troupe’, National Police Gazette, 21 October 1905; and ‘Only a Question of Time’, National Police Gazette, 18 November 1905.

59. ‘Skating’, New York Clipper Almanac for 1875, 53; ‘Belles of the Bowling Alley’, National Police Gazette, 26 October 1878; ‘The Latest Female Athletic Sport’, National Police Gazette, 13 December 1884; ‘In the Bowlers’ Corner', National Police Gazette, 13 February 1897; ‘Dainty Bowlers Make Big Scores’, National Police Gazette, 2 March 1901; and ‘Roller Rinkler’, National Police Gazette, 4 April 1885.

60. ‘Bag-Punching As an Art’, National Police Gazette, 13 July 1901.

61. ‘The Festival For the Union Home School’, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 21 October 1871; ‘Miss Nellie Burke’, National Police Gazette, 3 November 1883; ‘Miss Lillian Smith’, National Police Gazette, 6 December 1881; ‘The Trigger’, Sporting Life, 10 January 1891; ‘Shoots Like a Man’, National Police Gazette, 30 April 1892; and ‘Acrobatic Rifle Shooting’, National Police Gazette, 3 December 1892.

62. Richardson, ‘Tendencies in Athletics for Women in Colleges and Universities’.

63. Gregorich, Women at Play, 4–5.

64. ‘Ladies on the Ball Field’, New York Herald, 20 August 1883; and ‘Female Base-Ball’, New York Times, 21 August 1883.

65. ‘A Base-Ball Burlesque’, New York Times, 20 September 1883.

66. ‘The Female Players’, Sporting Life, 5 December 1883; and ‘The Female Tramps’, Sporting Life, 24 December 1884.

67. ‘A Disgraceful Move’, Sporting Life, 30 August 1890; ‘The Daises of the Diamond Field’, National Police Gazette, 29 September 1883; ‘Young Lady Baseballists’, National Police Gazette, 29 September 1890; and ‘Athletic Girls Play Ball’, National Police Gazette, 1 July 1899.

68. ‘Lady Champions at Ball’, New York Herald, 1 September 1890; and ‘Girls’ Ball Game Stops', New York Times, 26 May 1913.

69. Spalding, America's National Game, chapter 1.

70. Gregorich, Women at Play, 5; and ‘They Can Play Ball’, National Police Gazette, 24 August 1901.