On the Margins: Therapeutic Massage, Physical Education and Physical Therapy Defining a Profession

Abstract

The American physical therapy profession emerged during and following the First World War as a result of the need for trained providers of therapeutic exercise – who practised under the supervision of a physician – for the rehabilitation of injured soldiers. Most of these pioneer physical therapists came to the profession with a background in corrective exercise developed in women's physical education programmes at a variety of colleges and universities throughout the country. A number of scholars have examined the therapeutic exercise components of physical education that migrated their way into physical therapy practice but less focus has been placed on the use of massage as a therapeutic tool in physical therapy's earliest years. Recently, Danish historian Per Jorgensen began to analyse the connections among massage practice, physical therapy and chiropractic in Denmark from 1900 to 1930. My central question focuses on an analysis of how the practice of massage was used in physical therapy, and the ways in which massage practitioners and physical therapists interacted and established their respective scope of practice in the first half of the twentieth century in the USA.

Keywords::

• massage
• physical therapy
• physical education
• the First World War
• women

Notes

^1.Today's Physical Therapist.

^2. Initially the women of the APTA wanted to call themselves physical therapists but the physicians who worked in rehabilitation were against this title as they were called physical medicine physicians and thought that such a close name might create confusion among the public. In 1946, however, physical medicine physicians chose the term ‘physiatrist’ for members of their medical specialty so the physiotherapists changed their organisation's name from the American Physiotherapy Association to the American Physical Therapy Association. See Murphy, Healing the Generations.

^3.American Physical Therapy Association, “Direct Access to Physical Therapist.”

^4. , “Under the Showers”; “‘Re-constructing’ Physical Education”; and “Whatever Happened to Corrective Gymnastics?”

^5.Stanfield and Hui, Introduction to the Health.

^6.Kahn. “Foreword.”

^7.Granger, “The Development of Physiotherapy”; Clein, “The Early Historical Roots.”

^8.Moyer, Rounds and Hannum, “A Meta-Analysis.”

^9. Amy Morris Homans to R. Tait McKenzie, personal correspondence October 31, 1908, UPT 50, McK 37, Box 1, FF 21, University of Pennsylvania Archives.

^10.Nissen, Practical Massage.

^11. Ibid.

^12. Ibid.

^13.Goldstein,The Health Movement.

^14.Whorton, Crusaders for Fitness.

^15.Park, “The Second 100 Years.”

^16.Wrynn, “The Contributions of Women.”

^17.Rathbone, Corrective Physical Education.

^18.Hazenhyer, “Physical Therapy.”

^19.Epstein, Woman's Place.

^20. Ibid., 7.

^21.Today's Physical Therapist.

^22.Murphy, Healing the Generations.

^23.Today's Physical Therapist.

^24.Murphy, Healing the Generations.

^25.Rossiter, Women Scientists in America.

^26.Hudak et al., “Dr. Frances A. Hellebrandt.”

^27.McCurdy, “Physical Training.”

^28.Lynn, “Marjorie Bouve,” 88.

^29. Rachel Keegan, “Collection Overview: Boston-Bouve College Records, 1892–2000,” Archives and Special Collections Department Boston-Bouve College, Northeastern University, Boston, MA. http://www.lib.neu.edu/archives/collect/findaids/m41find.htm (accessed June 23, 2003).

^30.Sweeney, “Reconstruction Work,” 533.

^31. Ibid.

^32. For more on the involvement of the US government and the US military in the medical treatment of servicemen and women, see Department of Veterans Affairs, “VA History in Brief,” Office of Public Affairs, Washington, DC. http://www.va.gov/opa/publications/archives/docs/history_in_brief.pdf (accessed July 17, 2013).

^33. Ibid.

^34.Sanderson, “Woman's Part,” 367.

^35. “Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 1914–1918,” The History of Rehabilitation Medicine at UPHS, Chapter 2. http://www.pennmedicine.org/physical-medicine-rehabilitation/about-us/history.html, 4, (accessed October 24, 2002).

^36. Ibid., 3.

^37.Rathbone, “The American Physiotherapy Association.”

^38.McKenzie, “The Functional Reeducation.”

^39.Mennell, “Massage in the After Treatment.”

^40. “U.S. Leads in Work for Disabled Men,” New York Times, March 23, 1919, Part II, 2.

^41.Palmer, “Remedial Reeducation.”

^42.Granger, “The Development of Physiotherapy,” 16.

^43.Gritzer and Arluke, The Making of Rehabilitation.

^44.Beck, “Presidential Address.”

^45.“American Women's Physical,” 3.

^46.Nelson, “History of the Archives,” 373.

^47.Hazenhyer, “Physical Therapy.”

^48.Rathbone, “The American Physiotherapy Association,” 9.

^49.Gritzer and Arluke, The Making of Rehabilitation, 71.

^50.Krusen, “Historical Development,” 1.

^51.Additon, “Work among Delinquent Women.”

^52.Foster, The Social Emergency.

^53. Jennifer Ingham, Sally Brunette and Lauren Lassleben, “Timeline of Reed College Events to 1959.” http://web.reed.edu/alumni/oral_hist_timeline.html (accessed July 16, 2013).

^54. Kelly Her, “Massage Goes Mainstream,” Taiwan Review. http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem = 25052&CtNode = 1337&mp =  (accessed July 17, 2013).

^55.Nicholls and Holmes, “Discipline, Desire and Transgression.”

^56.Nicholls and Cheek, “Physiotherapy and the Shadow.”

^57. Ibid., 2343.

^58.Murphy, Healing the Generations.

^59. “The Massage Parlors,” Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1917, II4.

^60. “Lady Rubbers to the Front,” Los Angeles Times, March 15, 1919, II3.

^61. “Purity Raid Tip Starts Evacuation,” Los Angeles Times, February 27, 1923, 12.

^62. “Permit Sale Plot Charged,” Los Angeles Times, March 11, 1925, A1.

^63.“Editorial,” 2.

^64.Tuggle, “What Is a Physiotherapist?” 116.

^65.“Editorials,” 27.

^66.Tuggle, “What Is a Physiotherapist?” 115.

^67. “Enactment of Masseur Code Requested,” Los Angeles Times, April 11, 1932, A14.

^68. Police Battle Want Ad Vice,” Los Angeles Times, February 14, 1932, A2.

^69.Ruffin, “A History of Massage.”

^70. “Massage School Regulations Sought,” Los Angeles Times, March 27, 1939, 10; “Police Board Asks Ruling on Power over Masseuses,” Los Angeles Times, February 6, 1939, 9; “Curb Voted on Massagers,” Los Angeles Times, August 16, 1940, 13.

^71.Knopf, “Blinded Soldiers,” 114.

^72.Goldstone, “Massage,” 171–2.

^73. Ibid., 173.

^74.Stevenson, “IV. The American Physiotherapy,” 254.

^75. Kelly Her, “Massage Goes Mainstream,” Taiwan Review, http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem = 25052&CtNode = 1337&mp =  (accessed July 17, 2013); “China Asks If ‘Happy Ending’ Massage Services Are Illegal,” FoxNews.com, http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/06/28/china-asks-if-happy-ending-massage-services-are-illegal/ (accessed on July 17, 2013); Sally Schilling, “Millbrae Updating Massage Ordinance: City to Require One State Certificate, Not Two,” The Daily Journal, http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/lnews/2013-07-11/millbrae-updating-massage-ordinance-city-to-require-one-state-license-not-two/1771569.html (accessed July 17, 2013).

^76.Kahn, “Foreword.”

^77.“Editorials: What Is Happening,” 523.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alison Wrynn

Alison Wrynn is a former member of the International Olympic Committee, Olympic Studies Centre, a Postgraduate Research Grant recipient, the current editor of the Journal of Sport History and a Fellow (#514) of the National Academy of Kinesiology.