(See ‘A Step Too Far’ for an introduction to Pedestrianism…and ‘A Journey of a Thousand Miles…’ for the Barclay Match)
The conventional notion is that in the nineteenth century women simply did not do sports that involved strenuous exercise. In 1891 Punch gave its view of the progress in female sport over the preceding 30 years, from croquet to golf via a rather sedate form of lawn tennis. But Punch was already behind the times – from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth century there had been women-only foot races, or ‘smock’ races (so-called from the traditional prize for the winner) and the new girls’ schools of the period were already introducing gymnastics, hockey, cricket and other physical activities.
As interest in the male dominated side of Pedestrianism waned, several working-class women came to the fore, mainly in the North and the Midlands though there were 500-mile matches in Bristol and Plymouth. Several female pedestrians between 1852 and 1854 even took on the challenge of the Barclay Match.
These were, however, strictly money-making affairs, promoted by proprietors of pubs, hotels and pleasure gardens, who already provided music, dancing, fireworks and the all-important refreshments. The women were an additional attraction; for the admission fee of twopence, the public could observe a woman walk at a set time every hour or half hour day after day, week after week. The American Mrs Amelia Bloomer, was at the time advocating a new form of emancipated dress for women – the ‘Bloomer Costume’ of ankle-length pantaloons and a loose, knee-length tunic. On the basis that any publicity is good publicity, some of the women’s advertising emphasised the opportunity to see this new, somewhat controversial and widely ridiculed style of dress sported by the Pedestriennes.
In August 1864 London’s biggest music hall, the Alhambra in Leicester Square, advertised a novelty – a pedestrienne would walk 1,000 miles on a wooden walkway 279 feet long that had been built inside the auditorium. The pedestrienne was the 40-year old Margaret Douglas who had recently arrived from Australia. She was already an experienced competitor and had been among the entertainers who had joined the gold rush in the 1850s and performed in the saloons and music halls that sprang up in the Australian goldfields.
The Alhambra cancelled her walk abruptly after 34 days and 824 miles probably because she was not generating the money they expected. But within two weeks Emma Sharp, a 30-year old working class woman in Bradford began a walk beside the Quarry Gap Hotel. She aroused great excitement and the public were eager to pay to watch her, with estimates of more than 10,000 spectators. She finished with music and fireworks in front of huge crowds on 29 October, by which time a new demand for Barclay Matches was under way.
It was principally a phenomenon of the northern industrial towns and 1,000-mile walks in Sheffield, Liverpool and Manchester had already started Within a month there were Barclay matches in Leeds, Huddersfield, Blackburn, Halifax and Burnley. By 1866, however, this wave of Barclay enthusiasm had also ended. But throughout the 1870s a small cohort of increasingly professional pedestriennes developed and between 1870 and 1884 there were more than fifty walks by more than a dozen pedestriennes.
The best of her generation was Ada Anderson, who walked 1,500 miles in 1,000 hours, at Leeds in 1878. She then moved to the United States where female pedestrianism was thriving and there was more money to be made. British male pedestrians meanwhile had found a new form of challenge to revitalise their sport – the indoor, six-day ‘go-as-you-please’ race. Promoters built tracks of sawdust-covered wooden boards, put up prize money and hoped to make a profit from the entrance money. Competitors walked or ran continuously, day and night, between Monday and Saturday evening; the winners of the big events covered more than five hundred miles. The smaller venues and the tight and claustrophobic wooden tracks, however, made the task psychologically as well as physically difficult .
In 1878, Ada Anderson, whose walks “spanned hundreds of miles and many weeks with minimal sleep,” did a month-long walk in on a specially constructed “three-foot-wide tan bark walking oval” in Brooklyn. As one paper reported,
“[Anderson] will revolutionize the opinions held by many of her sex on the subject of physical exercise.”
The novelty of these events attracted huge interest, crowds and money until the mid-1880s, when they lost their audience. The last of the century’s female pedestrians competed in such events up until 1888.
In America, in 1868, Anne Fitzgibbons, aka “Madame Moore,” a clog dancer from England, exported women pedestrianism to America. She began putting on 50-mile walking exhibitions in New York, wearing “male attire” during her walks, for which she was arrested. She went on to be the first woman to walk 100 miles in less than 24 hours.
There was inevitable speculation in the press as to whether American women could be ultra-distance pedestrians.
“American girls are generally poor walkers, and it will soon be a difficulty to find an American lady who can walk more than twenty minutes without complaining of fatigue. They pay too much attention to the shape and make of their boots for pedestrian performances.”
Bertha Von Hillern (1853-1939) was born in Germany in 1853. Her mother encouraged and trained her in activities of strength and endurance and she often joined in with boys in walking contests and could outlast them all.
She walked in several matches in Berlin and other European cities during her teens to make some money for her parents. In October 1875, she emigrated to America at the age of 22, to start a new life, even though she spoke very little English. She made her way to the northside of Chicago, Illinois where many German immigrants lived, where she continued walking and advocated athletic exercise for women.
Von Hillern wanted to show how far a woman could walk in six days. She published a challenge in a Chicago newspaper for a woman’s six-day race:
“I Bertha Von Hillern, hereby announce my intention to exhibit my powers as a pedestrian in a contest in this city, for the championship of the world, with any woman of unblemished character.”
Mary Marshall responded a month later. Mary Marshall (1841-1911), was born in Soperton, Canada. Around 1870, the family moved to Chicago, where her husband was a brass moulder, working in foundries. Mary took up pedestrianism in 1875 to help with the family finances.
In January 1876, Marshall accepted Von Hillern’s challenge, and they asked Chicago’s famous pedestrian, Daniel O’Leary to be the promoter and make the proper arrangements. O’Leary eagerly accepted and helped the women to organise the event and to train. O’Leary hired the Second Regiment Armory building in Chicago that could seat about 3,000 spectators to host the event. The interior of the building was prepared with an oval sawdust track of ten laps to a mile. Instead of a full six days, the race was scheduled for five and a half days with a prize for the winner of $500.
Originally it was believed that there wouldn’t be a great interest in a race between women. Tickets prices were accordingly set at 25 cents. “The admission fee is placed so low as to acquit the ladies of any desire to victimize the public.” But as the event approached, excitement grew about this curious novelty billed as a walking match between “Petticoated Pedestrians, the Fraulein vs The American Girl.”
“There seems every likelihood that the unusual character of the contest will draw one of the largest audiences of the year.”
The editor of one sporting newspaper, however, displayed proper Victorian concern before the contest, remarking,
“How do these ladies propose to walk? If in petticoats they will soon tire, if in bloomer costume they will not make very extraordinary time, but if they strip to tights and trunks, and go for putting on a record, they will expose themselves to criticism.”
By day six of the contest, Von Hillern seemed to be well ahead. A crowd gathered to watch the last 12 hours of the race and by the afternoon, the building was filled with 3,000 people. Marshall then picked up her pace and started to lap Von Hillern over and over again as the crowd cheered her on. With two and a half hours to go, Marshall had caught up.
“The interest became intense, and the hall was crowded to its utmost capacity by a motley assemblage, all stretching their necks to obtain a glimpse of the walkers, elbowing, and crushing each other, quarreling and pushing about a dreadful rate.”
The race concluded at 10:40 p.m. after five and a half days (132 hours). Marshall won with 233.9 miles to Von Hillerns’ 231.5 miles.
Across the country, women took to walking for health and for profit. By the 1880s, however, pedestriennes had started to lose their appeal, both because of pressure from groups who found the practice unseemly and from those who found the conditions the women performed under exploitative and abusive. An editorial in the New York Times stated,
“Today it is the walking match, soon the [women’s vote] will come.”
and New York City considered passing an ordinance banning “all public exhibitions of female pedestrianism.”
On one side, women suffragists temporarily accepted the walkers as symbols for women’s rights and health and business people fuelled their popularity. On the other side, temperance and religious leaders labelled the pedestriennes as morally disreputable figures. Doctors and newspaper editors and reporters were divided in their opinions and interests, supporting or opposing activities as it suited their agendas. Later, the pedestriennes were identified by doctors and editors as exploited women in need of protection, stirring public disapproval of the events. Pressure to ban immoral and strenuous performances by women was followed by government action against such events. Women’s pedestrianism eventually declined in popularity, allowing myths of female frailty to persist despite evidence to the contrary.
References
- Derek Martin. Pedestriennes: nineteenth century female professional walkers
https://www.playingpasts.co.uk/articles/gender-and-sport/pedestriennes-nineteenth-century-female-professional-walkers/ - The Forgotten Craze of Women’s Endurance Walking
https://daily.jstor.org/the-forgotten-craze-of-womens-endurance-walking/ - Gayle Ritchie. Derided, denounced and assaulted – the Scottish women walkers who became sporting celebrities
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/past-times/5452561/pioneers-in-bloomers-scottish-women-walkers-sporting-celebrities/ - Six Day Race Part 8: First Women’s Race (1876)
https://ultrarunninghistory.com/first-womens-six-day/ - Derek Martin. A Short History of the Barclay Match: Long-Distance Pedestrianism in the Nineteenth Century.
https://www.playingpasts.co.uk/articles/athletics/a-short-history-of-the-barclay-matchlong-distance-pedestrianism-in-the-nineteenth-century/ - Dahn Shaulis. Pedestriennes: Newsworthy but Controversial Women in Sporting Entertainment. Journal of Sport History, Spring 1999, 26(1), pp. 29-50
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43611717