Daughters of the Lost Century is an action-packed pictorial anthology of women's sports featuring more than 100 rare articles and 1,000 lively illustrations originally published between 1849 and 1909, an overlooked era of American sports history. This fascinating compilation from "The Lost Century of Sports Collection" provides valuable insight about the origins and development of women's sports during the Victorian era and the social ramifications of the athletic New Woman as reported by the media at the time. The subject is enlivened by the vibrant energy of the women athletes in the illustrations, the sheer vastness of the collection, and the surprising variety of sports engaged in during an epoch better known for hoop skirts than for shooting hoops. Such overwhelming evidence of robust athleticism shatters our modern genteel stereotype of women of the 19th century. Primary sources include Harper's Weekly, Leslie's Weekly, Cosmopolitan, Outing, Munsey's Magazine, Woman's Physical Development, The Illustrated London News, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The San Francisco Call, and dozens of other periodicals. Many of the articles were written by women. This entertaining and educational volume of historical treasures is a must for every library, an essential resource for women's studies, and an ideal gift book for athletes, students, and art lovers. These contemporary published accounts reveal a passion for play and a desire for physical fitness common to women of today. The brief initial bloom of women's sports at the end of the 19th century, and the "unladylike" competitive zeal of the athletes as reported in sensationalized press accounts, prompted a social backlash that led to restricting female participation in sports for generations, until the passage of Title IX in 1972. A common thread in many articles from the earliest fitness magazines is the role of diet, exercise and sports in relation to physical beauty and the concept of femininity, a twining still evident in today's most popular women's fitness publications. The volume includes significant sections on the first flourishing of women's college basketball, the barnstorming baseball bloomer girls, the bicycle revolution, physical training, swimming, gymnastics, and two foundational books: Catharine Beecher's 1856 classic "Calisthenic Exercises, for Schools, Families, and Health Establishments," and Lucille Hill's groundbreaking 1903 work, "Athletics and Out-door Sports for Women." Among the many sports covered in this volume are bowling, volleyball, softball, track & field, ice skating, roller skating, skiing, ice hockey, football, fencing, archery, billiards, rowing, golf, tennis, dancing, and equestrian sports. This volume reveals and preserves the proud forgotten heritage of American women's sports.
For the first time, hundreds of rare historical articles are teamed with hundreds of vintage illustrations to portray the birth and growth of America's most popular sport. The story is told through fascinating contemporary accounts from over 100 source publications, allowing modern readers to share the 19th century football fan's experience of the game as it was reported by the media at the time. Multiple perspectives bring the era to life as we follow football chronologically from its primitive roots as a mob game in the early 1800s, through the Civil War years and the rise of college rivalries, to the game's technical flourishing in 1900. We see how football was originally played, how it looked from the sidelines, how it felt to the players, how it impacted American culture, and how it evolved into the sport we enjoy today. Many of the stories feel as if they were reported yesterday, not over a century ago. Readers will be surprised by the extent of media coverage devoted not only to the game itself, but also to off-the-field issues of broader social significance that continue to stir debate to this day. We witness the invention of rules we now take for granted, feel the intense team passion and colorful pageantry surrounding the game, and learn the origins of fundamental features of the sport, from the line of scrimmage and the number of players to the scoring system and the development of diagrammed plays. Themes include the role of college athletics in the educational system, eligibility standards for high school recruits, financial disputes, ticket scalpers, public intoxication, unruly fans, gambling, sportsmanship, brutality, and the modern concept of masculinity. This comprehensive illustrated anthology is an absorbing historical discovery that will enrich every modern fan's understanding and appreciation of the gridiron game. Entertaining and educational, this volume is an essential resource for football fans, players, students, scholars, art lovers and history buffs. "The man who receives the ball from the snap-back shall be called quarter-back." Pg. 83 "It used to be a simple matter to seek out the localities in which football is played; nowadays it would be far easier to say where it is not played." Pg. 473 "This half-way manner of settling a championship is only productive of further dissension and gives plenty of ground to the press and the public for ridiculing the association." Pg. 157 "It may be that professional matches would be better attended because the contests would be between rival cities." Pg. 443 "He not only played, but played well, desperately well at times, although he actually knew nothing of his actions and was placed in a physician's care immediately after the game. It was some 12 hours before he recovered ordinary powers of thought, and then he knew nothing whatever of the game or its results after he was hurt." Pg. 387 "Football can be played by electric light and under such a huge roof as that of the Madison Square Garden." Pg. 310 "It is the lack of money which seems to our struggling colleges to be the root of all evil. They stand agape when they learn from the public press that the income from the Thanksgiving game of foot-ball is greater than the total annual expenditure of their trustees for the support of twenty-five professors and the education of 300 boys." Pg. 555 "It is not uncommon today for a father to make matters worse by unconsciously over-encouraging his son, thereby fortifying him in his delusion that the sport is the most important part of college life." Pg. 397 "In every man's pocket there is a generous wad of greenbacks to bet on the great football game tomorrow." Pg. 415 "A mass meeting of the students will be held on Monday night at which steps will be taken towards effective organization for cheering at the big game." Pg. 416 Fully indexed. LostCentury.com
You've never seen football like this before! The largest collection of 19th century football art ever published -- Hundreds of illustrations. This visual time capsule reveals how football began and evolved, and how most Americans were introduced to the game before the advent of action photography. Illustrators include Frederic Remington, Charles Dana Gibson, A.B. Frost, Edward Penfield, I.R. Wiles, W.T. Smedley, Charles J. Taylor, and many other talented artists. Without these works of art, we would have no visual record of the early American game. The 8.5 x 11 inch art book includes a chronological Table of Contents and a full Index with dozens of source publications. The images were scanned from original sources and restored by The Lost Century of Sports Collection. Other football books in The Lost Century of Sports Collection include The Lost Century of American Football, The American Football Trilogy, The First Decade of College Football, Football Linemen, and Walter Camp in Print.
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