Vintage Athletes - Part 37

 Muybridge Boxers

We continue our look at the stop-motion photography of Eadweard Muybridge, published in his 1887 book Animal Locomotion. Muybridge did his work at the University of Pennsylvania, and his subjects were mostly students, graduates, or teachers at the university.  Today we look at boxing.

Each plate in Animal Locomotion consists of a series of photos taken at split-second intervals.  I made all of the gifs in this post from the photos on the plates.

Bare-knuckle professional boxing was practiced until 1889, when John L. Sullivan won the last bare-knuckle heavyweight boxing championship.  But the Marquess of Queensbury rules that came out in 1867 specified using boxing gloves.  While Muybridge was doing his work, both types of boxing were in practice.

Above is plate 329, depicting bare-knuckle boxers.

Above is plate 332, labeled "Boxing, cross-buttocks."  Under the old rules, a boxing round ended when a man went down, and grappling was allowed, so even though it was a boxing match, wrestling moves like the "cross-buttocks throw" were also used.

This is plate 333, labeled "53 knocking 52 down."  The models in my first four gifs were listed as #52 and #53.  Model 52, the guy getting knocked down here, was identified as a teacher at Penn and an instructor at the Fencing and Sparring Club.  I don't know who model 53 was.

This is plate 335, one of two plates labeled "Boxing with gloves."  As mentioned above, boxing with gloves was beginning to come into practice.  The models are still models 52 and 53.

The boxers here are wearing what was called a pelvis cloth.  Many of Muybridge's male models wear a pelvis cloth, and many others are nude.  The reason why is not explained, but my guess is that it was up to the model.  As we have seen before, many of the models, especially student athletes, had no problem with being photographed nude for a book of scientific motion studies.

This is plate 338, called "Boxing, open hand."  Open hand referred to the boxer striking with the palm of his hand, not his fist, another technique before boxing gloves came into use.  This was less damaging to the hand, as well as to the opponent, than bare-knuckle boxing.  There are seven open hand boxing plates.  The models in all seven were #64 and #65.  Both models were identified as teachers and as instructors at the Fencing and Sparring Club.

We close with three plates of Muybridge's only black model, Ben Bailey.  He was described as a "mulatto and professional pugilist."  Plate 343, above, was called "Striking a blow (left hand)."

Plate 344, above, was called "Striking a blow (right hand)."  Ben Bailey is nude in these photographs, though viewed from the rear.

But there are other plates showing frontal views of him.  To make up for the pelvis cloths in the previous gifs, here's plate 311, Ben Bailey heaving a 75-pound rock.