Archery History & Trivia
A splash of archery heritage just for fun!
Victorian-Era Archery in the U.S.
In the 1870s, in Florida’s Fort Marion (now Castillo de San Marcos Nat’l Monument), local Florida women traded their services as teachers to imprisoned Native Americans (teaching reading and English) in exchange for archery lessons.
1904 World's Fair
At the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, renowned Bedonkohe Apache Geronimo spent six months selling souvenirs to tourists, including bows and arrows he made by hand.
(A year later, he rode in President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade—for Teddy’s second inauguration.)
The picture to the right (desktop)/above (mobile) had an original caption of “Indian Girl Archers,” as part of a U.S. government exhibit at the fair.
Queenie Newall
Archer Queenie Newall (Sybil Fenton Newall) won a gold medal for England at the 1908 Olympics (held in London). Fifty-three years old at the time, she remains the oldest female gold medalist ... well, in an individual event.
1904 Olympics
You see, in 1904, while Geronimo was selling bows, also in St. Louis, Lida Peyton “Eliza” Pollock (aka Jessie Pollock) (almost sixty-four at the time) was winning two bronze medals in individual archery rounds and a team gold.
She remains the oldest American woman to have competed in the Olympics. With that team gold, Ms. Eliza is the overall oldest female gold medalist.
Alice Legh
A second ankle biter for Queenie’s glory is that, at the 1908 Olympics, Queenie didn’t have to face Alice Legh, another of Britain’s great archers.
Alice didn’t compete in the 1908 Games; she wanted to focus on defending her national-champion title (in contention the week after the Olympics). At Nationals, she sorta trounced Queenie. The impressive Ms. Alice didn’t retire from archery until 1922, when she was sixty-seven.
Ishi,
Pope, and Young
In 1911, Dr. Saxton Pope met Yahi tribal member Ishi in California; Ishi taught Pope the secrets of bow hunting (many people attribute the advent of modern bow hunting to this pair, who also shot with Art Young).
Pics from left to right (desktop)/top to bottom (mobile):
Ishi
Saxton Pope
Art Young
