William John Hennessy (American artist, 1839–1917) Out and About after the Snowfall

Winslow Homer (American artist, 1836-1910) Winter at Prouts Neck, Maine

John O'Brien Inman (American artist, 1828-1896 ) Moonlight Skating, Central Park, the Terrace and Lake 1877

Nicholas Winfield Scott Leighton (American artist, c1847-1898) Horse-Drawn Sleighs Racing 1885

John Carlin (American artist, 1813–1891) Snow Scene at Utica

Martin Andreas Reisner (Russian-born American artist, 1798-1862) The Forest Queen in Winter 1857

William Charles Anthony Frerichs (Belgium-born American artist) Skating in Winter

Nicholas Winfield Scott Leighton (American, ca.1847-1898) Seal Skin Brigade

Paul Cornoyer (American artist, 1864-1923) Winter twilight along Central Park 1900

Charles Christian Nahl (German-born American artist, 1818-1878) The Dead Miner

Maria Martin Bachman  1796-1863

 See Charleston County Public Library


Maria Martin Bachman of Charleston, South Carolina, may well have been the most influential woman on the American 19C natural history horizon. Her life changed forever on October 16, 1831, the day John James Audubon joined the family of her brother-in-law & future husband, John Bachman, at their residence on Rutledge Avenue. The 35 year old spinster could not have foreseen that Audubon would awaken in her a talent as a painter she did not know she possessed. Her paintings & watercolor drawings of birds, flowers & insects would later appear in the 2nd & 4th volumes of the Elephant Folio of Audubon's The Birds of America. Of the 435 pictures in this great work, more than 50 contain drawings of insects as well as birds.

Little is known about Maria's early years, as many records were destroyed by Sherman's March through the South. Maria was born July 6, 1796, the youngest of 2 daughters of Rebecca Solars & Jacob Martin. Her father's family forebears were French Huguenots who left France after the Edict of Nantes in 1685 & migrated to Switzerland & Bavaria before coming to the United States. Her great-grandfather, George Martin, arrived in America in 1750 & fathered 12 sons. John Nicholas Martin, Maria's grandfather, was ordained a Lutheran minister, & in November 1763, became the pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church in Charleston. Fifty-two years later on January 10, 1815, a young Lutheran clergyman & naturalist, John Bachman, arrived in Charleston from Schaghticoke, New York, to serve as the new pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church. Bachman took Harriet Martin-Maria's older sister--as his bride a year later.

Maria & her sister Harriet, daughters of John Jacob Martin, were well educated for their time. John's marriage to the widow Rebecca Solar, had provided his family with a decent dower that he nurtured into a fortune. Their daughters either attended a seminary for young ladies or were tutored at home. Judging from Maria's letters, she was a person well-read in classical literature, music, French, & the natural sciences, & she had taken drawing lessons. As the youngest daughter, Maria joined the Bachman household to take on the the task of caring for her ailing sister & the Bachman's 8 children at the time of Audubon's arrival in Charleston.

Audubon brought into the Bachman family's household a sense that life is exciting & filled with fascinating experiences that stretch a person's mind & heart. Maria, her sister Harriet, the children & the servants were all caught up in Bachman's & Audubon's adventures in the fields surrounding Charleston, eager to show this or that valuable bird they had shot or that Audubon had sketched. Perhaps it was mere politeness that prompted Audubon to offer Maria a pencil & suggest that she draw a bird, but when he quickly saw she had talent, he encouraged & instructed her, keeping her well supplied with painting materials. In the summer while Audubon had gone north, Maria, at his suggestion, began to draw flowers. Wrote Dr. Bachman to Audubon, "Maria has figured for you the white hibiscus & also a red one, both natives & beautiful; a suanymus in seed in which our Sylvia is placed; the white nondescript rose; the gordonia, a begonia, etc."The result was Audubon begged for more of her flower paintings. He was, he assured Bachman, "extremely desirous of introducing them in my second volume."

After John James Audubon began using Maria's flower backgrounds for his bird paintings, Maria sought to widen her knowledge of insect life so she could paint butterflies, moths & caterpillars for Audubon's paintings. She began by copying nearly all of the illustrations by Peale, Le Sueur & others in Thomas Say's The Entomology of North America. Only 6 out of her 54 copies of Say's plates are missing - destroyed when Lucy Audubon's cottage burned to the ground in 1875. Two of Maria's sketchbooks which appear to date between 1833 & 1836 are located in the Archives of the Charleston Museum. They contain her copies of Say's plates & 27 of her originals.

Maria's study of Say's illustrations represents an important link to Audubon, but also to the new field of entomology in North America. Audubon's experiences as a taxidermist at the Western Museum in Cinncinnati, & his acquaintance with T.R. Peale & Thomas Say upon their visit there after their Western expedition, touched upon insects & Peale's drawings of them for Say's projected book -American Entomology. What this small coterie shared in common was an understanding that the winged brethren, going about their business, are largely on the lookout for insects.

Audubon's portraits of birds from the beginning included beetles, caterpillars, worms, spiders, flies, & other natural quarry which set his work apart from other bird painters. He paid Maria Martin the ultimate compliment when he wrote his son Victor from Charleston, December 23, 1833, "Miss Martin with her superior talents, assists us greatly in the way of drawing; the insects she has drawn are, perhaps, the best I've seen."



John James Audubon 1785-1851 Timeline

See PBS July 25th, 2007 


John James Audubon (1785-1851)

1785 Born in Les Cayes, Saint-Domingue (later Haiti) to Captain Jean Audubon and Jeanne Rabine, his French chambermaid

1788 Sent to Nantes, France. Enjoys childhood here, begins interest in the natural world

1803 Leaves France for the United States to avoid conscription in Napoleon’s army. Moves to Mill Grove, his father’s estate in Pennsylvania

1804 Meets and falls in love with Lucy Bakewell, daughter of neighbor William Bakewell in Mill Grove. Creates wire constructions that help him pose dead birds in lifelike positions to paint them.

1807 Sets up general store in Louisville, KY

1808 Marries Lucy Bakewell and moves with her to Louisville.

1809 Son Victor born

1810 Meets ornithologist Alexander Wilson, and declines to subscribe to his publication, American Ornithology. Moves to Henderson, KY with family.

1812 Son John Woodhouse born

1815 Daughter Lucy born

1816 Invests in steam-powered grist mill in Henderson.

1817 Daughter Lucy dies

1819 Samuel Adams Bowen attacks Audubon on the street; Audubon stabs him in self-defense. Business fails. Jailed for debt; released when he files for bankruptcy. Family loses all possessions. Daughter Rose is born.

1820 Daughter Rose dies. States intention to complete, in his lifetime, “a collection of the Birds of our Country, from Nature, all of Natural Size”.

1821 Arrives in New Orleans and begins portrait painting on the street. Wife and sons join him in December.

1824 Attempts to obtain support from the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia for a publication of his engravings of American birds. Opposed by George Ord, editor of American Ornithology by Alexander Wilson.

1826 Leaves for England. Gains success quickly. Exhibits 250 paintings at the Royal Institution at Liverpool, Manchester, and Edinburgh. Meets William Home Lizars, who agrees to become Audubon’s engraver.

1827 Hires London’s Havell & Son to work on Double elephant Folio etchings.

1829 Returns to America to paint more American birds and convince Lucy to join him in England.

1830 Dines at the White House with President Andrew Jackson.

1831 Publishes first volume of Ornithological Biography.

1833 Travels to Labrador to paint northern bird species.

1838 Fourth and final volume of the Folio edition of Birds of America is completed.

1839 Leaves England for good to settle in New York with Lucy. Begins planning for The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America.

1840 Begins work on octavo edition of The Birds of America.

1841 Purchases Minnie’s Land, a 30 acre estate in Upper Manhattan.

1843 Travels west to search for new specimens for Quadrupeds.

1845 First Imperial Folio volume of The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America is published.

1848 Suffers stroke. Eyesight has now failed and son John Woodhouse has taken over work on Quadrupeds project. Audubon begins to go senile.

1851 Dies at Minnie’s Land on January 27.

Rev. John Bachman 1790-1874 Timeline

See JohnBachman.org


1754  Aboard the ship Barclay, Pastor Johann Nicholas Martin arrives at the port of Philadelphia from Germany with family (14 Sep); soon moves to churches in Anson County NC and later in Columbia SC (Dutch Fork) area

1763  Johann Nicholas Martin answers call to pulpit of a church to be named St. John's Lutheran Church, Charleston SC

1785  John James Audubon born, Les Cayes, Santo Domingo (present-day Haiti) (26 Apr)

1790  John Bachman born, Rhinebeck NY (4 Feb), son of Jacob & Eva Shop Bachman

1791  Harriet Martin born, Charleston SC (10 Aug)

1796  Maria Martin born, Charleston SC (3 Jul)

1802  Young Bachman moves from New York to Philadelphia to continue schooling

1804  Bachman begins visiting John Bartram's garden and meets bird artist Alexander Wilson (approximate date)

1806  Bachman shows signs of respiratory problems, leaves school in Philadelphia and returns to parents' New York home; stays in bed for about 18 months, nursed by his mother

1808  Bachman's strength and health return

1808  Bachman moves in with Pastor Anthony T. Braun in West Sandlake NY to commence religious studies

1808  John James Audubon weds Lucy Green Bakewell (5 Apr)

1809  Victor Gifford Audubon born to John James & Lucy Audubon (12 Jun)

1812  John Woodhouse Audubon born to John James & Lucy Audubon (30 Nov)

1813  Alexander Wilson dies shortly after publishing 7th volume of American Ornithology (Aug)

1813  Bachman licensed to preach in Lutheran churches, Philadelphia PA

1815  Bachman arrives in Charleston (10 Jan) and assumes pastorate at St. John's (12 Jan); serves for 56 years

1816  Bachman marries Charleston's Harriet Martin (23 Jan), granddaughter of the Rev. John Nicolas Martin, former pastor of St. John's

1831  Bachman hosts John James Audubon for a month at Bachman's Rutledge Avenue home during the artist's trip to Charleston (beginning 17 Oct)

1831  Bachman's sister-in-law Maria Martin becomes John James Audubon's assistant and begins to contribute paintings of backgrounds, insects, plants, etc., used in Audubon'sBirds of North America

1832  Audubon returns to Bachman home in Charleston after a scouting trip to Florida (10 Mar)

1833  Bachman helps found South Carolina State Horticultural Society

1837  John Woodhouse Audubon marries Maria "Ria" Rebecca Bachman (June); they produce 2 daughters

1838  Bachman arrives (1 Jul) in Liverpool, England, to news that Lucy Green Audubon had been born to John Woodhouse and Maria Rebecca Bachman Audubon while he was at sea; moves in with John James Audubon and family.

1840  Bachman & John James Audubon begin work on Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America

1840  Maria Rebecca Bachman Audubon dies of tuberculosis at age 23 (15 Sep); buried at St. John's Lutheran Church

1841  Mary Eliza Bachman Audubon dies in New York at age 22 (25 May)

1845  Bachman & John James Audubon publish first of three Imperial folios (without text) of Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America

1846  Bachman's first wife Harriet Martin Bachman dies after 30 years of marriage and 14 children, nine of whom survived

1848  Bachman marries his sister-in-law, Maria Martin; they have no children

1848  Bachman becomes professor of natural history at College of Charleston; serves until 1853 when he steps down to devote more time to ministry

1849  Bachman & John James Audubon publish first Royal Octavo volume of Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America

1851  John James Audubon dies, New York City, at age 64 (27 Jan)

1853  Bachman publishes A Defense of Luther and the Reformation

1854  Bachman, with help of Audubon sons, publishes 3rd and final text volume of Imperial folio for Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America

1854  Bachman publishes Notice of the Types of Mankind by Nott and Gliddon

1855  Bachman publishes Examination of Professor Agassiz’s Sketch of the Natural Provinces of the Animal World

1856  Under petition from Bachman and others, State of South Carolina charters Newberry College (20 Dec)

1857  Newberry College board of trustees holds first meeting; Bachman elected as first board president (15 Jan); next day authorizes $2,300 for purchase of 54 acres of land for the campus

1859  Newberry College begins operations with more than 100 students (6 in college, 2 in seminary, and the remainder in an all-male preparatory school)

1860  Bachman begins serving as co-editor of Southern Lutheran; continues until 1862

1860  Bachman leads opening prayer at Institute Hall in Charleston as South Carolina meets to vote for secession (20 Dec)

1861  Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor (12 Apr)

1863  Maria Martin Bachman dies (18 Dec)

1871  Bachman retires as pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church after 56 years, but continues to preach

1874  John Bachman dies of paralysis in Charleston SC, age 84 years, 20 days (24 Feb)

.
New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) Howland's red H hallmark, with 5 underneath 1877

Esther Howland (1828–1904) who was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, was the 1st to publish & sell commercial & mass produced Valentine cards made in the United States.

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847))

Howland was an artist & businesswoman who is responsible for popularizing Valentine's Day greeting cards in America.

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847)

Graham's American Monthly, observed in 1849 that Saint Valentine's Day had become a national holiday in the United States.

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) Howland's red H hallmark, with 1 1/2

After her graduation from Mount Holyoke College in 1847, Howland received an ornate English Valentine from a business associate of her father, when she was 19 years old.

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) N.E.V. Co. 5

The practice of sending Valentine's cards had existed in England, long before it became popular in North America.

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) In your heart - my home I view - There I'll live - and love for you. The back shows Howland's red H 15 underneath

There is a Valentine in the British Museum in London dating from the 1400s.

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) N.E.V. Co. 10

Intrigued with the idea of making similar Valentines & lucky to be the daughter of a prosperous Massachusetts stationer, she began her business importing paper lace & floral decorations from England.

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) Weddings now are all the go, Will you marry me or no - Marked H25

Her father operated the largest book & stationery story in Worcester, Massachusetts, & ordered supplies for her project.

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847)

She made a dozen samples, which her salesman brother added to his inventory for his next sales trip for their father's business. Hoping for $200 worth of orders, she was elated; when he returned with over $5,000 worth of business for her.

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) Howland's red H hallmark, with 25 underneath

Howland employed friends to produce the large amount of cards the public clamored for, & she developed a thriving business in Worcester, Massachusetts using an assembly line.

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) My love unchanging Still will be, Though friends depart and fortune flee. On the back is the NEV.CO.

Between 1840-1860, many sentimental, embossed, & perforated lace paper were imported from England. Howland imported lace-edged blanks from Britain, when she began her business of selling American-made Valentines.

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847)

Her valentines quickly became famous throughout the United States, & Howland was called "The Mother of the American Valentine."

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847)

Howland's business eventually grossed over $100,000 per year, a large amount of money for the middle of the 19th-century in America.

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847)

Howland finally sold the business in 1881, to the George C. Whitney Company.

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847)

Since 2001, the U.S. Greeting Card Association has been awarding an annual "Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary."

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847)

For further information on these valentines see the American History & Genealogy Project site of Mount Holyoke College History.

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847)

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847)

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) H mark and a price of 10 cents.)

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847)

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) Howland H mark and a price of 25 cents

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) 1847 NEV 35

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) N.E.V. Co. 10 n

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) NEV.CO. over a 5 1881

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) NEV.CO. over a 5

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) NEV.CO. over a 10

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) No rubies on the Indian shore - Outshine thy noble mind; - Its radiance far excels them all, - And blesses human kind.

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) red H over 25

New England Valentine Company (established by Esther Howland 1847) vm


Esther Howland 1828-1904
.

During the 19th-century, women began to participate in outdoor sports in public spaces. Clothing worn for sports began to change as well.  This chronology traces that evolution.

1804 - Horseracing The first known woman jockey was Alicia Meynell of England. She first competed in a four-mile race in York, England.

1805 - Ballooning Madeleine Sophie Armant Blanchard solos in the first of 67 gas-powered balloon flights. She made her living as a balloonist, was appointed official Aeronaut of the Empire by Napoleon, and toured Europe until she fell to her death in an aerial fireworks display in 1819.

1805 - Ice Skating The first known ice skating race for Dutch women is in held in Leeuwarden.

1805 - Horseracing Englishwoman Alicia Meynell, riding as Mrs. Thornton, defeats a leading male jockey, Buckle, in a race.

1811 - Golf  On January 9, the first known women’s golf tournament is held at Musselburgh Golf Club, Scotland, among the town fishwives.

1819 - Thightrope Mms. Adolphe becomes the first known woman to perform on a tightrope in the US in New York City.

1825 - Ballooning Madame Johnson takes off in a hot air balloon in New York, landing in a New Jersey swamp.

1834 - Lacrosse The first modern Lacrosse games are played. Lacrosse will become a major new sports opportunity for women in the 1990's with many colleges offering scholarship dollars. The original game was played by North American Indians.

1837 - Donald Walker's book, Exercise for Ladies, warns women against horseback riding, because it deforms the lower part of the body.

1850 - Bloomers Amelia Jenks Bloomer begins publicizing a new style of women's dress, first introduced by Fanny Kemble, a British-born actress - loose-fitting pants worn under a skirt. Other women's rights leaders like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony adopted the new style. But it wasn't until Katharine Hepburn (another actress) began wearing stylish pants in public nearly a century later that a wide-spread revolution in women's clothing finally "took."

1855 - Hockey The first modern game of hockey is played in Kingston, Ontario, using rules similar to today's. Women's hockey will become a new sports opportunity in the 1980's and '90's, with the US Women's team winning the gold medal in 1998, the first year women's ice hockey is a medal sport.

1856 - Catherine Beecher (1800-78) publishes Physiology and Calisthenics for Schools and Families, the first fitness manual for women.

1858 - Mountain Climbing Julia Archibald Holmes (1838-87) climbs Pikes Peak in Colorado (14,110 feet) wearing bloomers on Aug. 5.

1863 - Roller Skating New Yorker James Plimpton uses a rubber cushion to enable the wheels of roller skates to turn slightly when the skater shifted his or her weight. This design is considered the basis for the modern roller skate, allowing for safer, controlled skating.

1864 - Croquet The Park Place Croquet Club of Brooklyn organizes with 25 members. Croquet is probably the first game played by both men and women in America.

1865 - Swimming & Boating Matthew Vassar opens Vassar College with a special School of Physical Training with classes in riding, gardening, swimming, boating, skating and "other physical accomplishments suitable for ladies to acquire ... bodily strength and grace."

1866 - Baseball Vassar College fields the first two women's amateur baseball teams.

1867 - Baseball The Dolly Vardens, a black women's team from Philadelphia, is a women's professional baseball team.

1867 - Mountain Climbing Frances S. Case and Mary Robinson climb Mt. Hood in Oregon (11,235 feet).

1867 - Golf St. Andrew's in Scotland is the first ladies golf club.

1869 - Cycling Frenchwomen enter cycling races at Bordeaux, France.

1869 - Croquet The first women's croquet championship is held in England and won by a Mrs. Joad.

1870 - Sculling In a sculling contest held on the Monongahela River, Lottie McAlice and Maggie Lew, both 16, row 1 mile. McAlice wins the race in 18:54, winning a gold watch and a $2,000 purse.

1871 - Mountain Climbing Addie Alexander climbs the 14,256 foot Longs Peak in Colorado.

1871 - Roller Skating Miss Carrie A. Moore demonstrates a variety of roller skating movements at the Occidental Rink in San Francisco. Later in the same day, she exhibits her skill on a velocipede.

1871 - Rowing The Empire City Rowing Club's 10th annual regatta features a rowing match among young women on the Harlem River in New York on Sept. 25. Five women row 17-foot workboats around a 2 mile course. Rowing the Glen, Amelia Shean wins the singles race in 18:32. Elizabeth Custarce and Annie Harris win the pairs race.

1872 - Baseball Mills College in Oakland, CA establishes women's college baseball teams.

1873 - Swiming 10 young women compete in a mile-long swimming contest in the Harlem River. Miss Deliliah Goboess wins the prize, a silk dress worth $175.

1874 - Tennis Mary Ewing Outerbridge of Staten Island introduces tennis to the United States. She purchases tennis equipment in Bermuda (and had trouble getting it through Customs!) and uses it to set up the first US tennis court at the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club that spring.

1875 - Ballooning Lizzie Ihling, the niece of famed American balloonist John Wise, makes a solo flight on July 5. The skin of the bag began to rip, sending the balloon falling to earth. Lizzie was not injuried.

1875 - Baseball The "Blondes" and "Brunettes" play their first match In Springfield, IL on Sept. 11. Newspapers heralded the event as the "first game of baseball ever played in public for gate money between feminine ball-tossers."

1875 - Ice Skating Wellesley College opens with a college gymnasium for exercising and a lake for ice skating and the first rowing program for women.

1875 - Swimming English teenager Agnes Beckwith, accomplishes a long distance swim in the Thames River from London Bridge to Greenwich, a distance of about 6 miles.

1875 - Roller Skating The first known roller-skating rink opens in London.

1876 - Walking Mary Marshall, 26, shocks spectators when she beats Peter VanNess in the best of three walking matches (called Pedestrians) in New York City.

1876 - Tightrope Maria Speltarini crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope in July, wearing 38-pound weights on each ankle.

1876 - Mountain Climbing Ten percent of the members of the newly created Appalachin Mountain Club are women.

1876 - Boxing Nell Saunders defeated Rose Harland in the first United States women's boxing match, receiving a silver butter dish as a prize.

1877 - Swimming Eliza Bennett swims across the Hudson River in August.

1877 - Field Hockey The first known women's field hockey club is started in Surrey, England.

1878 - Walking Woman pedestrian Ada Anderson walks 3,000 quarter-miles in 3,000 quarter hours over the course of a month in New York' Mozart Hall, kicking off a series of "lady walker" matches.

1879 - Archery The first National Archery Championship is held, with 20 women participating.

1879 - Speed Walking Speed-walker Ada Anderson walks 2,700 quarter-miles in 2,700 quarter hours, as indoor Pedestrianism continues to attract attention.

1880 - BallooningBalloonist Mary Meyers makes her first ascent on July 4 at Little Falls, NY before a crowd of 15,000.

1880 - Swimming Distance swimmer Agnes Beckwith treads water for 30 hours in the whale tank of the Royal Aquarium of Westminster to equal a pervious mark set by Matthew Webb.

1881 - Horseracing Bell Cook of California and Emma Jewett of Minnesota toured the country, competing in a series of 20-mile horse races. On Sept. 29, in Rochester, NY's Driving Park, the two compete, with Jewwtt winning for the first time when Cook was thrown from her horse with only half a mile to go. Jewett covered the 20 miles in 45:05 using a nunber of changes of mount.

1881 - Indoor Tennis Indoor tennis is played inside the 7th Regiment Armory in New York City on Nov. 26, with 12 courts put in use for women enthusiasts and their male partners.

1881 - Indoor Swimming Edith Johnson of England sets the world's endurance indoor swimming record at 31 hours. The record holds until 1928.

1882 - Croquet The National Croquet Association is formed to revise and standarize the rules.

1882 - Athletic Competition At the YWCA in Boston, the first athletic games for women are held.

1883 - Archery Mrs. M. C. Howell wins her first archery title. She will win the national championship for women 17 times between 1883 and 1907.

1883 - Baseball The first baseball "Ladies Day" is held on June 16 by the NY Giants, where both escorted and unescroted women are allowed into the park for free.

1884 - Tennis Women's singles tennis competition is added to Wimbledon. Maud Watson wins in both 1884 and '85.

1885 - The Association of Collegiate Alumnae publishes a study which concludes that "...it is sufficient to say that female [college] graduates...do not seem to show, ...any marked difference in general health for the average health ... of women engaged in other kinds of work, or in fact, of women generally...", refuting the widely held belief that college study impaired a woman’s physical health and ability to bear children.

1885 - Sharp Shooting Annie Oakley (Phoebe Ann Moses, 1860-1926), 25, is the sharp-shooting star of the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. She could hit a moving target while riding a galloping horse; hit a dime in mid-air; and regularly shot a cigarette from her husband's lips.

1885 -Roller Skating More than $20 million has been invested in roller skating rinks in almost every city and small town around the country.

1886 - Ballooning Mary Hawley Myers sets a world altitude record in a hot air balloon, soaring 4 miles above Franklin, PA, without benefit of oxygen equipment. Her first balloon ascent was in Little Falls, NY in 1880. Between 1880 and 1890 she completed more balloon ascents than any other living person.

1886 - Lacrosse The first known women's lacrosse game is played.

1887 - Field Hockey A women's field hockey club is started in Surrey, England.

1887 - Tennis Ellen Hansell is crowned the first Women's Singles tennis champion at the US Open.

1887 - Tennis Lottie Dod wins the women's Wimbledon Championship five times between 1887 and 1893.

1887 - Tennis First Women's French Tennis Championship is held.

1887 - Indoor Baseball Indoor baseball (the forerunner of softball) was invented by George Hancock at the Farragut Boat Club on Chicago's South Side. The first game was played on Thanksgiving Day. The basic equipment included a huge 17-inch ball and a stick-like bat. No gloves were worn, and the catcher wore no mask. It quickly became the indoor winter sport of choice for boys and girls in the area.

1887 - Trap Shooting Rose Coghlin ties two men in a mixed trap shooting match held at the Philadephia Gun Club. All three score 7.

1888 - Cycling The modern "safety" bicycle is invented with a light frame and two equal-sized wheels and a chain drive.

1888 - Cycling Women join (bi)cycling clubs in Chicago and tennis clubs in New York City.

1888 - Auto Racing Berta Benz becomes the first woman to drive on a 60 mile trip cross-country in Germany in a "motor-wagon" (a 3-horse-power car with solid rubber tires) with only her two teenage sons along in August.

1888 - The Amateur Athletic Union is formed to establish standards and uniformity in amateur sport. During its early years, the AAU served as a leader in international sport representing the US in the international sports federations.

1888 - Fencing AAU holds its first fencing championships. Professor J. Hartl of Vienna tours America with a women's fencing demonstration; women begin to fence at private clubs.

1888 - Skating Lord Stanley, the Governor General of Canada, has an outdoor skating rink created in his back yard for his wife and 10 children (including 2 daughters) to skate and play hockey on. Lord Stanley will donate a silver bowl worth about $50 which will become the coveted Stanley Cup, to be won each year by the top amateur hockey team in Canada.

1889 - Cycling The first women's six-day bicycle race ends at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

1889 - Hockey Isobel Stanley is one of the first women hockey players in Canada. Her Governmnt House team played the Rideau ladies in what may be the first women's hockey game in Ottawa. There is a photograph in the National Archives of Canada commemorating the "action."

1890's - Cycling More than a million American women will own and ride bicycles during the next decade. It is the first time in American history that an athletic activity for women will become widely popular.

1890 - Golf Miss Carrie Low and John Reid defeat Mrs. Reid and John Upham in golf's first mixed foursome.

1890's - Baseball The Bloomer Girls baseball era lasted from the 1890s until 1934. Hundreds of teams -- All Star Ranger Girls, Philadelphia Bobbies, New York Bloomer Girls, Baltimore Black Sox Colored Girls -- offered employment, travel, and adventure for young women who could hit, field, slide, or catch.

1890 - Baseball A women's baseball club plays a game against the Danville, IL Browns before 2,000 fans on Sunday, June 8. As the women leave town in carriages for Covington, IN, they are arrested and fined a total of $100 for disturbing the peace by playing baseball on Sunday in viloation of the local "Blue Laws." The men's team members are also arrested.

1890 - Baseball Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochran Seaman) becomes the first woman to travel around the world alone - she does it in just 72 days while a reporter for the New York World newspaper, returning on Jan. 25.

1890 - Cycling Fanny Bullock Workman (1859-1925), with her husband William, begins 10 years of bicycle tours. Cycling across the back roads of Europe and charting new pathways for fellow cyclists, the Workmans published their first travel book in 1895, after a tour of Algeria. They toured the Far East, cycling across Asian countries and the Indian Subcontinent in 1897 and 1898, publishing more travel accounts. For the rest of their careers they were mountaineers, completing eight Himalayan expeditions between 1898 and 1912.

1890 - Mountain Climbing Fay Fuller climbs the 14,410 foot Mt. Rainier in Washington.

1891 - Walking Zoe Gayton arrives in Castleton, New York on March 20 after walking cross-country in 213 day, leaving the West Coast in Aug. 1890, averaging 18 miles per day. She won a $2,000 wager.

1891 - Rifle Shooting At least 60 women enter a rifle-shooting contest in Regina, Saskatchewan.

1891 - Exploring Mary French Sheldon (1847-1936) mounts her first expedition to East Africa. Her her travel accounts broke new, scientific and anthropological territory by focusing on the women and children in the territories she visited. She was one of only twenty-two women who were invited to join the Royal Geographic Society in 1892, an invitation withdrawn after contentious debate about women's presence in the Society. She eventually made four trips around the world.

1891 - Ice Hockey On Feb. 11, two unnamed women's ice hockey teams play a match in Ottawa, Ontario.

1891 - Golf The Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Long Island opens its doors to women. Golf proved so popular that the club opened a 9-hole course for women two years later.

1891 - Parachuting Beatrice Von Dressden, 14 of Buffalo, NY, makes her first parachute jump from a hot air balloon.

1892 - The Journal Physical Education (a publication of the YMCA) devote an issue to women, saying that women need physical strength and endurance and dismis the popular idea that women are too weak to exercise.

1892 - Gymnastics Gymnastics instructor Senda Berenson Abbott adapts James Naismith's basketball rules for women and introduces the game to her students at Smith College, where she became the first director of physical education in Jan. Her rules confine each player to one-third of the court.

1892 - The Sierra Club of California welcomes women members as it organizes.

1892 - Rifle Shooting Louise Pound, (born Lincoln, NE June 30, 1872), enrolles at the University of Nebraska and earned a BA degree in 1892 and her MA in 1895. While in college she helped organize a girls' military company and she set a record at rifle target practice. She was the first woman named to the Lincoln Journal Sports Hall of Fame in 1954. She participated in tennis, golf, cycling, and ice skating, and also coached girls' basketball. She made pioneering contributions to American philology and folklore.

1892 - Boxing Hessie Donahue, who donned a loose blouse, bloomers and boxing gloves and sparred a few rounds as part of a vaudeville act, knocks out legendary heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan for over a minute after he accidentally landed a real blow on her during the act.

1893 to 1900 - Cycling The "Golden Age of the Bicycle", with the development of the modern-style "safety bicycle" with two equal- sized wheels, coaster brakes, and pneumatic tires creating a comfortable, faster and safer ride. A side effect is more common-sense dressing for women.

1893 - Cycling 16-year old Tessie Reynonds of Brighton rides her bycycle to London and back, a distance of 120 miles, in 8.5 hours. She wore the shocking "rationale" dress - a long jacket over knickers, which outraged some observers as much as her feat.

1893 - Golf Formation of the Ladies Golf Union which sponsors the first British Ladies' championship, won by Lady Margaret Scott.

1893 - A women's ice hockey team is formed in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

1893 - Mountian Climbing Katharine Lee Bates climbs to the top of Pike's Peak and is inspired to compose a poem, "America, the Beautiul."

1894 - Golf The first ladies golf tournament is held on the 7-hole Morristown, NJ course on Oct 17-1894. Miss Hollard A. Ford won with a 97 scored on the double-7, 14 strokes under her nearest rival.

1894 - Indoor Hockey College girls at McGill University in Montreal begin weekly ice hockey games at an indoor rink - with 3 male students on "guard" at the door.

1894 - Cycling Annie "Londonderry" Kopchovsky, 23, sets out to become the first woman to bicycle around the world, a journey that lasted 15 months and earned her $5,000 along the way.

1894 - Golf The first Australian women's national golf championship is held.

1894 - Field Hockey The Irish Ladies Hockey Union, the first national women's field hockey association, is formed in Dublin.

1895 - Mountain Climbing Annie Smith Peck is the first woman to reach the peak of the Matterhorn. She climbed in a pair of knickerbockers, causing a sensation with the press. She helps to found the American Alpine Club in 1902.

1895 - Golf The first Women's Amateur Golf championship is contested among 13 golfers at the Meadow Brook Club, Hempstead, N.Y., on Nov. 9. The match is won by Mrs. Charles S. Brown with a 132 and the runner-up is Nellie Sargent.

1895 - The first organised athletics meeting is generally recognized as the "Field Day" at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, on Nov. 9. A group of "nimble, supple and vivacious girls" engaged in running and jumping events despite bad weather.

1895 - Cycling Frances Willard, president of the WTCU, publishes A Wheel Within a Wheel, a best-selling account of learning to ride a bicycle.

1895 - Softball The first women's softball team is formed at Chicago's West Division High School. They did not have a coach for competitive play until 1899.

1895 - Volleyball Volleyball is invented in Holyoke, MA. By the 1990's, volleyball is the second-largest participation sport in the United States with more than 42 million participants. There is indoor and outdoor competition for boys and girls, men and women and co-ed teams.

1895 - Bowling The American Bowling Congress is organized, establishing equipment standards and rules on Sept. 9. By the 1990's, bowling is the second-largest participation sport in the world, with more than 100 million athletes, 46% of whom are women who compete equally with men.

1895 - Mrs. Frank Sittig exhibits her new duplex riding skirt - which The New York Times judges to be "An ideal suit for cycling, to which even the most prudish could not object."

1896 - Cycling Women are buying 25-30% of all new bicycles.

1896 - Cycling The first 6-day bicycle race for women starts on Jan 6 at Madison Square Garden in NYC.

1896 - Basketball The first women's intercollegiate basketball championship is played between Stanford and the University of California at Berkely. Stanford wins 2-1 on April 4 before a crowd of 700 women!

1896 - At the first modern Olympics in Athens, a woman, Melpomene, barred from the official race, runs the same course as the men, finishing in 4 hours 30 minutes. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, says,"It is indecent that the spectators should be exposed to the risk of seeing the body of a women being smashed before their very eyes. Besides, no matter how toughened a sportswoman may be, her organizm is not cut out to sustain certain shocks."

1896 - "Bicycling has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride on a wheel. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance." Susan B. Anthony, US suffragist.

1897 - Acrobatics Lena Jordan becomes the first person to successfully execute the triple somersault on the flying trapeze. The first man to acomplish this didn't do so until 1909.

1897 - Tennis The first Women's French Tennis Championship is held.

1898 - Cycling Three women create a stir when they compete in a "century run" endurance contest in bicyling. Irene Bush of Brooklyn rides 400 miles in 48 hours; Jane Yatman of Brooklyn rides 500 miles in 58 hours; and Jane Lindsay rides 600 miles in 72 hours.

1898 - Baseball Lizzie Arlington becomes the first woman to sign a professional baseball contract, appearing in her first professional game pitching for the Philadelphia Reserves.

1899 - Cycling Setting a new women's cycling endurance record, 125 pound Jane Yatman rides 700 miles in 81 hours, 5 mintes on Long Island. During the 3 and one half day trial, she rests less than 2 hours. Her record is beaten on Oct. 19 by Jane Lindsay who rides 900 mikes in 91 hours, 48 minutes.

1899 - Ice Hockey Two teams of women ice hockey players play a game on the artifical ice at the Ice Palace in Philadelphia.

1899 - Ping Pong/Table Tennis Ping-pong, or table tennis, as it soon becomes known, is invented.
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This outline of women in sports was developed by the St. Lawrence County Branch of the New York State, American Association of University Women. The AAUW advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. See here.

John George Brown (1831-1913) St Patrick's Day 1877

Alfred Jacob Miller (American artist, 1810-1874) A Young Woman of the Flat Head Tribe

A Young Woman of the Flat Head Tribe

In July of 1858, Baltimore art collector William T. Walters commissioned 200 watercolors at $12  apiece from Baltimore-born artist Alfred Jacob Miller. These paintings were each accompanied by a descriptive text written by the artist, & were delivered in installments over the next 21 months & ultimately bound in 3 albums. These albums included the field-sketches drawn during Miller's 1837 expedition to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (now western Wyoming).  These watercolors offer a unique record of the the lives of those involved in the closing years of the western fur trade & a look at the artist's opinions of both women & Native Americans. 

One of the social highlights of the rendezvous occurred when this young woman ("quite a belle," Miller thought) ran off with a "stalwart Canadian trapper." Not knowing that the trapper had already begun paying court to the girl, one of Miller's friends, a young man from St. Louis named Phillipson, decided that she would be his. His presents and attentions were "kindly received," Miller noted, encouraging the young man. Phillipson felt embarrassed before the whole camp when the "simple Indian girl," realizing that her future was with the trapper, stole off quietly. Phillipson initially was "crest-fallen and melancholy," Miller recorded, but later regained his serenity. 

 The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland. 

Nelson Augustus Moore (American artist, 1824-1902)  Springtime in Connecticut

Alfred Jacob Miller (American artist, 1810-1874) Indian Courtship

Indian Courtship

"The North American Indian carries his wonderful stoicism into every transaction of his life,- even the tender subject of selecting a helpmate does not disturb his tranquility - neither is he affected with the slightest romance in regard to the subject. He brings his presents and casts them at the feet of his bronzed favorite, ostensibly for her; but intended for the optics of the father,- these consist of cloths of brilliant colors, beaver skins, beads, trinkets &c." A.J. Miller, extracted from "The West of Alfred Jacob Miller" (1837). 

In July of 1858, Baltimore art collector William T. Walters commissioned 200 watercolors at $12  apiece from Baltimore-born artist Alfred Jacob Miller. These paintings were each accompanied by a descriptive text written by the artist, & were delivered in installments over the next 21 months & ultimately bound in 3 albums. These albums included the field-sketches drawn during Miller's 1837 expedition to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (now western Wyoming).  These watercolors offer a unique record of the the lives of those involved in the closing years of the western fur trade & a look at the artist's opinions of both women & Native Americans. 

  The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.

The Château de Villandry, Indre-et-Loire, France.

The Château de Villandry, Indre-et-Loire, France, was constructed in the 1500s, reportedly on the spot where King Philip II of France (1165-1223) once met Richard I of England (1157-1199) to discuss peace.   Its Renaissance gardens include a water garden, ornamental flower gardens, & vegetable gardens.

During the French Revolution, the property was confiscated, & in the early 19th century, Emperor Napoleon acquired it for his brother Jérôme Bonaparte, who had married Betsy Patterson in Baltimore, in 1803. Across the Atlantic, Napoléon, who was already planning his coronation as well as anticipating marriages for all his siblings with the major royal houses of continental Europe, was none too pleased to learn of his 19-year-old brother’s marriage.

Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte by Francesco Emanuele Scotto, circa 1806

Napoleon ordered his brother back to France demanding that the marriage be annulled.  Jérôme ignored Napoleon's initial demand, that he return to France without his wife. Furious, Napoléon ordered that Betsy be forbidden from landing anywhere in continental Europe but encouraged his brother to continue on without her. Napoléon offered her an annual pension of 60,000 francs a year, if she would only agree to leave & relinquish the Bonaparte name. Betsy refused.

1804 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte

Promising to sort things out & have her received in proper state, Jérôme went off to reason with Napoléon, assuring poor pregnant Betsy, who was left behind in neutral Portugal, that he would do everything he could to sort the situation out. He never returned.  She bore him a son in 1805, & returned to America.  Jerome got a new wife without benefit of a legal divorce & the Château de Villandry.

The Château de Villandry, Indre-et-Loire, France.


The Château de Villandry, Indre-et-Loire, France.

Alfred Jacob Miller (American artist, 1810-1874) Indian Girl (Sioux)

Indian Girl (Sioux)

"The amusements of these young girls is very limited - riding horses, when they can get them, swimming in the streams, which they can do like ducks, and playing with the dog. Fashion does not trouble their simple little heads, as is the case with their civilized sisters. Their dresses are not for the season but for all time, and as Nature has blessed them with a luxuriant supply of black hair, what do they want with a bonnet?" A.J. Miller, extracted from "The West of Alfred Jacob Miller" (1837). 

In July of 1858, Baltimore art collector William T. Walters commissioned 200 watercolors at $12  apiece from Baltimore-born artist Alfred Jacob Miller. These paintings were each accompanied by a descriptive text written by the artist, & were delivered in installments over the next 21 months & ultimately bound in 3 albums. These albums included the field-sketches drawn during Miller's 1837 expedition to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (now western Wyoming).  These watercolors offer a unique record of the the lives of those involved in the closing years of the western fur trade & a look at the artist's opinions of both women & Native Americans. 

  The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.

Alfred Jacob Miller (American artist, 1810-1874) Indian Girl Reposing

Indian Girl Reposing

"Before they are 16 years of age, these girls may be said to have their hey-day, and even if they become the wives or mates of Trappers, are comparatively happy, for they generally indulge them to their hearts' content; should they become however the squaws of Indians, their lives are subjected to the caprices of a tyrant too often, whose ill treatment is the rule and kindness their exception. Nothing so strikingly distinguishes civilized from savage life as the treatment of women. It is in every particular in favor of the former. The scene in the sketch is a sunset view on the prairie,- a Shoshonee girl reclined on a Buffalo robe near a stream, and some lodges and Indians in the distance." A.J. Miller, extracted from "The West of Alfred Jacob Miller" (1837). 

In July of 1858, Baltimore art collector William T. Walters commissioned 200 watercolors at $12  apiece from Baltimore-born artist Alfred Jacob Miller. These paintings were each accompanied by a descriptive text, & were delivered in installments over the next 21 months & ultimately bound in 3 albums. These albums included transcriptions of field-sketches drawn during Miller's 1837 expedition to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (now western Wyoming).  These watercolors are a unique record of the closing years of the western fur trade.  The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.