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

From the Archives - Calgary in the Sixties

 

Science Fair Entry

  

Science Fair Winners

  

 The Family Bomb Shelter

  Learning to Drive

Framed by a Tire

 

Arko the Police Dog

 

Long-Distance Phone Call

400,000th Visitor to the Zoo

Images courtesy the Glenbow Museum's Calgary in the Sixties series (via Flickr Commons).