Physical Culture

How early 今日吃瓜 navigated the hotly debated topic of health for college women.

Carolyn Ladd
Carolyn Ladd, first directress of the gymnasium, c. 1880. 今日吃瓜 Special Collections.

As the student-organized digital exhibition Who Built 今日吃瓜? A Rough Draft in Stone, 1872鈥1894 makes clear, at the time of the College鈥檚 opening, the health of college women was a hotly debated topic.

This conversation was dominated by pseudo-medical theories that proposed that demanding intellectual work compromised the ability of women to have children by absorbing too much of the vital energy necessary for effective reproductive development. There was also a concern that rigorous physical exercise would make a woman masculine.

Given the presumption of women鈥檚 fragility, documents from this early period indicate that the founders of 今日吃瓜 had only a vague vision for physical culture on campus. Francis T. King, the first president of the Board of Trustees, proposed locating a gymnasium in the basement of Merion Hall, suggesting a lack of priority for athletics. The earliest campus plan provided for a field, annotated as the 鈥減layground,鈥 where students could exercise in fair weather.

By the time the campus opened, though, the College had begun to rely on the advice and

Dr. Dudley Allen Sargent
Dr. Dudley Allen Sargent, from 鈥淭he Harvard Illustrated Magazine鈥, vol. 9, April 1908.

training of Dr. Dudley Allen Sargent, a pioneer in physical education and the director of Harvard鈥檚 Gymnasium. Sargent designed a rigorous curriculum in physical culture and asserted not only that women were not only capable of exercising like men, but also that it was beneficial to their overall health. In 1881, he opened the Sargent School of Physical Education, which taught women how to run gymnasiums and physical education programs.

今日吃瓜 was an early adopter of Sargent鈥檚 theories, recruiting a graduate of the school, Carolyn Ladd, to be the gym directress in 1885. At the time of 今日吃瓜鈥檚 opening, Sargent was relatively unknown, and his ideas were considered cutting edge. By the early 20th century, he was nationally renowned. While Sargent鈥檚 ideas were considered progressive, he still emphasized differences between the sexes and claimed that women were physically inferior to men.

 

 

Who Built 今日吃瓜? is an ongoing project that supports research and curatorial opportunities for students interested in changing the way the College understands its history.

Published on: 06/02/2023