Progressive Gymnastics: American Physical Education, Military Training, and International Sport at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century

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.