EXHIBIT FOCUSES ON ROLE OF SPORTS IN EARLY
HISTORY OF WOMEN'S EDUCATION

In the 19th century, when opponents of higher education for women often questioned women's physical and mental fitness for scholarship, athletics played an important role at women's colleges. The significance of athletics to women's education will be examined in Building Muscles While Building Minds: Athletics and the Early Years of Women's Education, a new exhibition in the Class of 1912 Rare Book Room at Canaday Library. The exhibition will open Tuesday, Sept. 20, with a lecture by Jenepher P. Shillingford, director emeritus of physical education, at 7:30 p.m. in Thomas 110, to be followed by a reception in the Rare Book Room to celebrate the exhibition opening. The lecture and exhibition are sponsored by the Friends of the Bryn Mawr College Library.

Shillingford's lecture, titled "A Century of Empowering Women Through Sports: From 'the Apple' to Title IX," will take as its point of departure the tenure of Constance Applebee, who introduced the sport of field hockey to the United States and served as Bryn Mawr's athletic director from 1904 to 1929.

The Building Muscles exhibition looks at how Bryn Mawr College responded to 19th-century attitudes that questioned whether women were both mentally and physically capable of a rigorous academic program. Curated by Visual Collections Specialist Barbara Ward Grubb and Emily Houghton '05, the exhibition draws upon period photos, instruction books, contemporary student publications and the national press to illustrate how the "physical-culture" program influenced the layout of the grounds, added variety to campus life, inspired literary and satirical publications, and connected the College with other schools.

Building Muscles will run through Dec. 22. The Rare Book Room is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 1 to 5 p.m. on weekends, except for holidays and fall break weekends. For additional information, please call Special Collections at 610-526-6576.

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