Vintage Athletes - Part 41

 Muybridge - Other Athletics

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 some more miscellaneous sports.

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.

Plate 308 shows Model 39, probably a Penn teacher, doing the Scottish hammer throw, an event that is part of the Highland Games.

Plate 309 shows model 35 doing the Scottish hammer throw.

Model 35 was George Brinton, a member of the Penn class of 1888, as shown in this 1888 group photo.  Brinton was remarkably athletic.  In state intercollegiate sports events, he won the 100-yard dash, the running broad jump, and the hammer throw.  In 1888 he threw the hammer 100 feet 9.5 inches, setting an intercollegiate record.

This is plate 310, showing model 68, Frank Gummey, demonstrating shot put.  Gummey was also quite an athlete.  He was in the Racket Club and on the tug-of-war, crew and football teams.  He won the 16-pound shot put throw with a throw of 30 feet 6 inches.

And this is plate 327, showing Frank Gummey rowing on a rowing machine.  He was a rowing enthusiast.  He was a member of the 4-oar shell crew and 8-oar shell crew, and he was captain of the Medical School crew when he was in medical school.

Here's Gummey as a senior at Penn in 1887.

Another athletic event was throwing an iron disk, captured on plate 307.  This doesn't look like a regulation discus, and he is not throwing it in the normal manner for a discus, which involves spinning around.  The model is Thomas Love Latta.

Here's Latta as a senior at Penn in 1887.  We've previously seen Muybridge plates showing Latta playing baseball and lifting weights.

Finally, here's plate 521 showing model 95, who is Muybridge himself, throwing a disk.  At first I thought he was spinning around, as discus throwers do, but on closer examination, the photos are taken from different angles, so he only appears to be spinning.