Progressive Gymnastics: American Physical Education, Military Training, and International Sport at the Tum of the Nineteenth Century
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CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY SAN MARCOS THESIS SIGNATURE PAGE THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY THESIS TITLE: Progressive Gymnastics: American Physical Education, Military Training, and International Sport at the Tum of the Nineteenth Century AUTHOR: Kevin Stahl DATE OF SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE: November 30, 2016 THE THESIS HAS BEEN ACCEPTED BY THE THESIS COMMITTEE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS TN HISTORY. / / Dr. JeffreyCharles l � le.. �& THESIS COMMITTEE CHAIR DATE Dr. Katherine Hijar THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER ....- Dr. Anne Lombard THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER Lv�SIGNATURE Progressive Gymnastics: American Physical Education, Military Training, and International Sport at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century by Kevin Stahl ii Table of Contents Acknowledgments..................................................................................................................... iii Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... iv Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Essential Gymnastics ...................................................................................... 14 Chapter Two: Military Gymnastics....................................................................................... 55 Chapter Three: Competitive Gymnastics ............................................................................. 84 Conclusion: Finding Balance in the Twentieth Century ................................................... 120 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 126 iii Acknowledgments While historical research is often a solitary pursuit, it is by no means a venture completed alone. I have been significantly influenced and aided by many people in the year and a half in which I conducted my research and put thought to page. Some I have spent my whole life with, others I have never even met, but whose work inspired me to take on this project. I would like to thank the members of my committee for appreciating my original thesis concept, and for supporting me when the research led me in many new and unexpected directions as I eagerly followed. Their insight into elements of inquiry that I failed to consider greatly contributed to my understanding of the sources. I am especially grateful for their ongoing support and encouragement, even when the demands of their normal duties might have made assisting me an inconvenience. My family, friends, fellow graduate students, and the writing group I joined after attending a conference in late 2015 have been endlessly supportive, mindful listeners that graciously checked my writing and my lines of argument to ensure it all made sense to everyone besides me. We have developed many “MAKisms” in the last eleven months. Though it might sound unusual, I must also thank Google Books, and the archival team at Oxford, Princeton, and Harvard for charging into the digital age full speed ahead and uploading so much of their materials to the internet. The majority of my primary source materials were derived from open-source providers of information. Finally, I would like to dedicate this book to the people who inspired me to strive in all that I do: the professors of history at California State University San Marcos and Palomar Community College. You taught me the value of learning from the past. iv Abstract Gymnastics training has had a profound and lasting impact on American physical culture. It was the first physical training system widely practiced throughout the United States after its introduction in Massachusetts in the early nineteenth-century, and became incorporated into military training towards the end of the nineteenth century as part of a renovation of the United States Armed Forces. Gymnastics appealed to the White middle-class men in the New England region throughout the nineteenth century because its training principles addressed contemporary concerns regarding the safety of the new republic, the moral and physical health of young men, and the deficit of discipline within not only the civilian population, but also the military. These principles of civil masculinity can be found not only in the training systems of German gymnastics, New Gymnastics, Swedish Gymnastics, and military training manuals, but also in popular physical culture literature of the period. However, at the turn of the nineteenth century, American sporting culture was on the rise. Although gymnasts adapted their training methods and amended their prohibition on gymnastics competition, contemporary nationalistic fervor and enthusiasm regarding the manliness associated with American originated sports such as baseball and football overshadowed gymnastics training. Gymnasts were relegated to the role of physical educators despite gymnastics’ status as an international sport with the formation of the Modern Olympics. This thesis examines the various training systems of popular gymnastics throughout the nineteenth century and tracks gymnastics’ decline in the early twentieth century following the 1904 Olympic Games. Keywords: Gymnastics, American History, Exercise, Masculinity, Military, The Olympic Games. Introduction In the last decade of the twentieth century, gymnastics only seemed to matter to Americans once every four years, at the quadrennial Summer Olympic Games. It is also when they were exposed to some scant facts about gymnastics’ origins. The spectator guide for the “Artistic Gymnastics,” competitions at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016 included a section on the history of gymnastics in the world, entitled, “How It All Began.”1 The guide notes gymnastics’ origins in Ancient Greece, omitting its connection with religious ceremony, and adding that, “’artistic gymnastics’ was used for the first time in the 19th century to differentiate free flow styles from techniques used in military training.”2 The guide goes on to discuss how gymnastics spread to schools and athletic clubs throughout Europe during the nineteenth century, but mentions nothing of the same occurrence in the United States. It does contribute some useful information concerning how the parameters of competition. When describing how gymnastics are to be judged, the guide states that, “the athletes’ greatest challenge is to make everything seem simple, demonstrating grace and lightness.”3 However, outside of the Olympic Games, not all who practice gymnastics ascribe to these principles. Today, with the rise of exercise crazes such as CrossFit and the information disseminating capability of the internet providing a platform for Olympic gymnastics coaches to sell training guides to the population at large, gymnastics has a much more salient influence and widespread following in America.4 CrossFitters, military personnel, YouTube personalities, and veteran Olympic coaches all recommend their own style of training with gymnastics, some for 1 “Artistic Gymnastics: Understanding the Sport,” accessed October 2, 2016, https://www.rio2016.com/en/artistic- gymnastics. 2 “Artistic Gymnastics.” 3 Ibid. 4 “CrossFit Gymnastics,” accessed October 8, 2016, http://www.crossfitgymnastics.com/#welcome; “Gymnastic Bodies,” accessed October 8, 2016, https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/. 2 competition, but most for basic physical fitness. Gymnastics is experiencing a revival. There are over 10,000 CrossFit affiliate gyms in the United States alone, and all of their members are asked to perform some variation of gymnastic drills.5 However, despite its growing popularity, gymnastics’ history in the United States, the story of how and why it changed from a physical training regimen to a competitive sport, continues to remain obscured, both in public perception and in the historical literature. Gymnastics had a profound impact on the development of physical culture, the development of sporting culture, and changes in the physical training of the military in the United States throughout the nineteenth-century. As a training system, it boasted theories of developing the body for the purpose of instilling discipline, bodily control, and overall physical preparedness. This was in contrast to contemporary American middle-class ideals of athletic specialization, professionalism in sport, and the growth of spectacle competition in the late- nineteenth and early-twentieth century.6 The theories that informed its systems of training, and even competition, valued serving others, subordination of the gymnasts’ will to their instructor, and progressive improvement as opposed to learning through play. These elements appealed to certain groups of the United States population, including the military, physical educators, and reformers of the period. Due to several factors surrounding the increased popularity of team sports at the turn of the nineteenth century, other activities largely replaced gymnastics in recreational sport, physical education, and military training.7 Even as its advocates loosened 5 Paul Teetor, “The Story of How CrossFit Went From Zero to 10,000 Locations,” accessed October 14, 2016, http://www.laweekly.com/arts/the-story-of-how-crossfit-went-from-zero-to-10-000-locations-5005604. 6 Donald J. Mrozek, Sport and American Mentality, 1880-1910, (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee