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Catharine Beecher
Catharine Beecher (1800 - 1878) played a large role in women's health throughout the 1800s. In 1823 she opened Hartford Female Seminary, an educational institution, where she introduced calisthenics and implemented physical education programs for women. -
Phys Ed added into curriculum
The Round Hill School, a private school established in 1823 in Northampton, Massachusetts, was the first to include physical education as an integral part of the curriculum. Physical education was not offered in the public schools until 1855, when Cincinnati, Ohio, became the first city school system to offer this type of program to children. In 1866 California became the first state to pass a law requiring twice-per-day exercise periods in public schools. -
Popular Sports
Yaughting, steamboat racing, dueling, and horseback/harnest racing were popular sports during this time and were growing in competeitveness and popularity. -
Turner societies
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn founded the Turner movement. Generation immigrants brought the turners into the U.S. Turners. There were social centers with libraries, bars, dancing halls, and gyms.The Turners were trained not only in running, jumping, swimming, and weight-lifting, but also in the martial arts such as fencing, shooting, and even bayonet-fencing. -
Muscular Christianty
Muscular Christanity started in the Victorian Era. It had an impact on how Anglo-American Christians view the relationship between sport,physical fitness, and religion. Victorian Muscular Christianity was that participation in sport could contribute to the development of Christian morality, physical fitness, and “manly” character. -
Bloomer's Craze
Athletic bloomers were worn by women in only a few different contexts of athletic activity like bicycle-riding and gymnastics. They became a craze in the summer of 1851 and became a symbol of women's rights thanks to Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucy Stone -
YMCA
Institutions were formed in the burgeoning cities of the northeast including YMCA which appeared in the US in 1851 to combine muscles and morals in building physical and spiritual health based on muscular christianity. The first YMCA was organized in Boston. -
Central Park
The New York Legistlature enacted into law setting aside more than 750 acres of land in Manhattan Island to create America's first major landscaped public park. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the designers of Central Park, realized that the creation of a public park would improve public health. -
Lena Rivers by Mary Jane Holmes
Mary J. Holmes' novels centered around domestic life. Some novels during the 19th century, including "Lena Rivers" helped push the suggestion that the ideal women should be healthy and energetic. The message conveyed in the novel was that an idle woman was not attractive to men seeking a bride; rather, that a woman would have an improved quality of life if exercise was added to her routine. -
Baseball
National association of baseball players, first organized baseball league was formed. Baseball was the most popular sport in the nation. Americans also began playing on informal teams using local rules. First game was held in 1846. -
Leisure Activities: Board Games
The Game of Life (or just Life) was introduced by Milton Bradley in 1860. This board game becamse America's first popular parlour game, and a modern version of the game was published 100 years later. It is now a member of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History -
Crickett
Crickett became a popular craze for men and women. It was created in the Saxon or Norman times in England. It is similar to baseball and played with two teams of eleven players. -
Beginning of The Civil War
The civil war broke out over whether states should be independent or all states as one nation; and the issue of slavery(should all men be treated equally or should slavery be allowed)-they could not come to a compromise between the north and the south over free and slave states -
Further Development of Prosthetics
With the civil war the number of amputations grew rapidly which led James Hanger -who himself had lost his leg in the war-to develop the "Hanger limb" which was made of wood from a barrel which is lighter than the previous prosthetics made. Also in this year the rubber hand which allowed for a more "natural" look -
Emancipation Proclamation
The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." There were loopholes within the proclamation- it only applied to states that had seceded from the union and also exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control, but strengthened the union militarily and politically because it made it a war for freedom. -
Vaudeville Theatre
The theatre was designed by prolific architect C. J. Phipps, decorated in a Romanesque style by George Gordon, and opened on April 16, 1870 with Andrew Halliday's comedy, For Love Or Money and a burlesque, Don Carlos or the Infante in Arms. -
Ice Skating
Popularity of ice skating as a social event skyrocketed in the 1800s. In 1876, the first artificially frozen ice rink opened in London, called the Glaciarium. -
American Red Cross formed
Clara Burton and her associates came up with the idea for the red cross while traveling in Europe following the Civil War. After the war it focused on safety and nutrition education, home care for the sick and relief after disasters for veterans and others. -
Gymnastics
U.S Commissioner of Education introduced school gymnastics and phys ed inspired by turner model. In 1851 National Gymnastics Festival in Philadelphia was held and U.S Germany competitions.
