Archival Tour de France

I dream of a sports channel that broadcasts sporting events from the past.  While I'm aloof to the running of the 100th edition of the Tour de France, I'd love to watch 50 year old coverage of the race. While I cannot provide you with live footage of the 1963 tour, here is some print ephemera and vintage figurines (via the Spoke Sniffer archives) for restaging your own race. If you prefer moving images, I recommend you watch the greatest cycling film ever made: Louis Mallee's short documentary, Vive Le Tour (1962). 

 

 

 

 

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

Archival Snow Sports

 

Long before Warren Miller, Dwight Watson, amateur photographer and mountaineer, documented snow sport culture in the pacific northwest.  I've been browsing Watson's 1940s era images on the UW Digital Collections site.  As a non-skier, I'm drawn to Watson's more casual scenes showing sportsmen and women at rest - at the lodge, in ensemble poses.  As always, I endorse how outdoor clothing from the past resembles everyday garb.  There is very little evidence of performance fabrics or ski specific clothing in these images. I love the visual flourish of the Cross County skiers wearing neckties to finish their outfits.  Style in the face of a chill!

Browse through the Watson collection as inspiration for staging your own heritage snow sports day ala the great tweed run.

 

Archival Tour de France

Once again I'm mining riders from the Nationaal Archief's flickr photostream to stage my own Tour de France. Despite the passing of decades, the rider's wool jerseys and steel bicycles make them look like a unified team. For 2012, I present my Archival tour:

Jaap Kersten in Gramont (1961)

Alphonse Schepers (1933)

Jules Buysse (1926)

Seamus Elliott, Jean Stablinkski en Jacques Anquetil (1963)

Merchandising (1958)

Climbing the Aubisque on foot (1928)

Stage 2 - Rennes - Le Mans (1960)

Taking care of the bicycles on a rest day (1930)

Kisses from a local beauty (1928)

Racing cyclists passing the Atomium (1960)

Ezquerra in the mountains (1934)

Cyclists passing a herd of sheep (1938)

From the archives...

Archival Miniatures (2011)

Vive Le Tour (2010)

Archival Cyclists: Tour Edition (2010)

Guest Post: Archival Field Bag Review

Thanks to longtime friend and photographer Rick G. for this review. Rick has an early Field Bag that, we wager, has seen some of the hardest use of any Archival baggage!

As the waterfowl season draws to a close here in Washington State, I thought I would submit a review of the Archival Clothing Field Bag. I have been using this bag all season as a catchall blind bag/jump shooting bag.

It has been a great hunting companion--thorn proof, waterproof, roomy, and quiet. It has seen 28 days in the field this year, and has seen its fair share of accidental dunkings, mud, a whole lot of rain, and more mud. I am pleased to say that the contents of my bag have stayed uniformly dry and clean. An added bonus, the brass ring on the side is a perfect place to clip a game strap.

I initially thought that this bag would be an urban laptop and sketchbook hauler (since it does serve that purpose well), but I soon pressed it into service as a working field bag. It nicely holds all of the necessities for a day afield: a box or two of shot shells, binoculars, extra layers, water bottle, etc…

Recently, an unfortunate, hip high, encounter with a drainage ditch left my bag and I covered with unspeakably smelly mud. After letting it dry out, a stiff brushing and another rainstorm was all it needed to get it cleaned up and looking good.

Can’t ask much more than that.

Typical contents

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