Interest in this photo of a female gym class prior to 1900 has been great. Gym teachers look at it in disbelief and start naming the class props the girls are pictured with. I've heard "Not today. Someone would get hurt",several time. Maybe you can give me some help in naming all the training items and their usages. Rings, parallel bars, dumbbells, large platform ladder??, pivoting ladder, juggling clubs, lots of wooden balls perhaps for croquet or juggling.

This photo was taken by B.F. Oliver in either Fulton, or Jefferson City Missouri before the turn of the century. I'm placing the photo as being taken at "The Fulton Synodical Female College" and have found the following information about that college.

The following extract, printed in the History of Callaway County, is taken from the Chicago Commercial Advertiser: "The Fulton Synodical Female College established by the Presbyterian Synod of Missouri, in 1871, has come to be one of the foremost female schools in the West, and under the presidency of Rev. B.H. Charles, comes as near to being a model ladies' school as any college or seminary within my knowledge west of the Mississippi."

This photo-print is available ready for framing made from the original master scan sized 12" tall x16" wide. You may view the framed version of this print in the "Show" section of this website.