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Track and Field Sports. 13 Press Photos of Successful Female Athletes.
Black-and-white photos of various sizes, all but one from the 1920s and 1930s, (one from 1963); depicting the Australian hurdler Edna Gaywood; Philadelphia javelin throwers Mary Ladewig & Mildred Yetter; Louise & Nancy Voorhees on their way to compete at the Paris International Games in 1922; winners of the 1922 British Ladies Cross Country Run in Kenton, Middlesex; Olympic sprinter Esther Green; Australian field hockey players; and Winnie Horton after winning the London Olympiads Walk; along with others; each bearing date and copyright stamps on versos with captions; many marked up for publication.
Reading the captions of press photos like these in the 1920s and 1930s, one is confronted with explicitly stated stereotypes and characterizations of women's fitness for exertion and participation in sport. For example, one photo shows an Australian runner aged 16 collapsing at the finish of her race. According to the caption, "Doctors are now wondering whether the 220 yards is not too strenuous a run for girls." In an issue of Strength magazine, from about the same period, a photo essay titled: "The Athletic Girl: Permanently Displacing the 'Flapper,'" images of women participating actively in sports offers the following. "Is the athletic girl an unsexed or masculine type? These pictures, revealing dainty feminine types, speak louder than words to the contrary. If there is any unsexed, 'hard-boiled' girl of today it is the non-athletic, drinking-smoking type."
