From the archives

Archival Athletes

From the Musee McCord Museum Archives, here are some terrific photographs of individual and team sports from the turn of the (past) century.  I love reprinting images of historical athletes as evidence of a time when athletic prowess was conflated with a snappy, well tailored presentation for the camera.  Here, in the McCord image set, both male and female athletes wear sporting garb that could easily double as street clothing.  I long for the days when heraldic emblems, plus fours, bowler hats, wool knits and striped tunics were de rigeur elements of the the amateur sporting uniform.
 John Lowe, 1931
  
 Frank Barnwell, 1891
Louis Rubenstein, 1893
  
 Rowing Crew, 1871
Fencers, 1925
  
 “Bonnie Lassies” group, 1891

Hurdle race on snowshoes, 1892
Trafagler Basketball Institute, 1928
 
YWCA Water Polo Team, 1925

Bank of Montreal Hockey Team, 1895
 Kahnawake Lacrosse, 1867
Wesleyan Thelogical Basketball Team, 1916
Physical Education Hockey Group, 1925

2 thoughts on “Archival Athletes”

  1. These are really an awesome collection of photographs of some archival athletes.I always willing to get these types of creative information.This is really an impressive stuff for me.

  2. Wow these are awesome and so much the History of my home, The Traf girls uniforms were the same in the 1980’s, the Snowshoe racer is from the MAA once a private athletic club and the winner of the first Stanley Cup (and why the winged wheel symbol is so ubiquitous in Hockey), but the best by far is the group of First Nation Canadian Lacrosse players from the Kahnawake reserve…

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