Americas Collections Blog

USA: Olympic Rugby Champions

Last weekend saw the start of the seventh Rugby World Cup. The Americas are well represented in the competition with three teams in the finals. I thought I’d take the opportunity to see what titles in our collection that explore the development of rugby union in the American continent. Arming myself with the Rugby Compendium [BL shelfmark: HLR 796.333 Open Access] compiled by John M. Jenkins (no relation) to see if it could offer any possible hints.  

September 11^th saw the U.S. Eagles' first match of the tournament, against Ireland. The U.S. are currently the Olympic champions, beating France in the final of the 1924 Paris Olympics. This was the last time rugby union was included a competitive sport in the Olympics, though the Berlin Olympics did put it on has an exhibition event. The development of rugby union in the U.S. seems to focus on the West Coast, and the title California Football History by “Brick” Morse, 1937 [BL shelfmark: X.622/20122] appears to be a useful if brief introduction.

Turning to Canada, who have developed as a team recent years from their involvement in the Churchill Cup where they play their southern neighbour and the England “Saxons” regularly. As with the U.S. rugby union in Canada, plays third of forth fiddle to other sports although the lineage of the Canadian Rugby Football Union dates back to 1884. The tome Canada learns to play : the emergence of organized sport, 1807-1914, Allan Metcalfe, 1987, [BL shelfmark: YL.1989.a.1808]  covers the development of sports in nineteenth-century Canada.

As a number of teams have found out to their cost in previous World Cups, you cannot underestimate Argentina, whose prowess on the field shows through time and again. They were unlucky not to prevail in the Pool B clash with England on Saturday last.   The British influence in Argentine sport can be traced in Victor Raffo’s El origen británico del deporte argentino : atletismo, cricket, fútbol, polo, remo, rugby durante las presidencia de Mitre, Sarmiento y Avellaneda 2004 [BL shelfmark: YF.2006.a.19585].

Enjoy the World Cup!

[JJ]

Cricket in the Collections

Having recently had reason to go through the Library’s cricket holdings for the Caribbean and Canada it seemed appropriate to post some notes about them here. Cricket is not only a dynamic and globally popular sport, but it also has an important place in nineteenth and twentieth century history.

(Cricketers on the George Town Parade Ground, 1866, An Illustrated History of British Guiana, 10470.i.3) 

Cricket in the Caribbean has long had a political element and the sport has been played by some of the key thinkers and actors in Caribbean politics in the twentieth century and provided opportunities for them to travel and share their ideas with a wide audience. This is illustrated not least by Learie Constantine and C. L. R. James who spent long periods of time in Lancashire and London as a result of their cricket connections. Both James’s and Constantine’s writings on cricket and racial politics are available in the Library, with works such as Beyond a Boundary (James, 1963 [Shelfmark: 7926.n.25]), Cricket and I (Constantine, 1933 [Shelfmark:2271.d.15]) and Colour Bar (Constantine, 1954 [Shelfmark: W49/1369 DSC]) available, along with many works by other notable authors. Furthermore, these materials are well supported by the newspaper collections and Sound Archive which contain articles and recordings by and relating to both men.

Our collections also illustrate the changing face of cricket over at least the last hundred and fifty years. The publication Cricket Across the Sea; or, the Wanderings and Matches of the Gentlemen of Canada, 1887 (Toronto: 1887 [Shelfmark: 07926.b.9]) is an account of the Canadian Men’s Cricket successful tour of England in 1887. Given the success outlined in this work and the prevalence of publications such as The Canadian Cricketer’s Guide (St. Catharine’s: 1858) one can see that Canadian cricket has fallen on harder times, as has American cricket which is also noted in the collection. And, as you can see from, The American Cricket Annual for 1890 (New York: 1891 [Shelfmark: P. P. 2523. fd]), I’m not getting confused with baseball.

Given the continued pace of change within cricket in the twenty-first century, we can learn a lot from these collections as they illustrate the ebb and flow as well as the significance of the sport during the preceding two centuries.

[P. J. H.]

Celebrating snow: Canada in the winter

 
Wm. Notman & Son, “Montreal Curling group” (1905)

Friday sees the start of the 21st Winter Olympics, jointly hosted by British Columbia and the four Host Nations of the Lil’wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh. This celebration of all things sporting and wintry made me think of the Canadian relationship to winter in general and prompted this post.

Winter in most of Canada has always been a hard, unforgiving time of year, but the peoples who live there have often treated it as something to be made the best of, celebrated, and even enjoyed.  Among the First Nations, winter encouraged the development of Snowshoeing (fun fact: not an Olympic sport, despite lobbying) and Tobogganing as tools and sports and these have endured to become part of Canadian identity and culture. In cities too sport has flourished, not least pastimes such as ice hockey and curling. The British Library has an interesting collection regarding Canadian sports, including a 1904 piece by David Hanbury entitled Sport and Travel in the Northland of Canada (BL Shelfmark: 010470.ee.5). Although, you might not find many Olympic sports in there.

Of course when you talk about Canada in winter a name that comes to mind is that of William Notman, whose representations of the Canadian winter speak to generations of Canadians. Some lovely examples are in Portrait of a Period: A Selection of Notman Photographs, McGill University Press; BL Shelfmark L.R.412.d.8. Notman’s images illustrate a nation defined by its weather, and his lens often focussed on the grand spectacle of the season and the celebrations that went with it. The British Library is lucky to hold a limited number of images from the Notman and Son studio (run by his son, William McFarlane Notman), including the particularly striking image above, of the Montreal Caledonian Curling Club, and the one below. The images comprise part of our Canadian Colonial Copyright Collection, which was deposited between 1895 and 1924.

 
Wm. Notman & Son, “Ski Jumping” (1905)

The images contrast the joy and freedom of individualised sports and the grandeur and potential of large, organised events, while also illustrating the importance of sport within Canadian culture as a whole and the place of sport as a celebration of winter. In short they drive home to me the Canadian preoccupation with enjoying all that winter can throw at you – although hopefully this year’s Games won’t have to count a dearth of snow among the season’s problems.

I should close by noting one thing you may have already perceived; in these images (and most other sports images in the Colonial Copyright Collection here) there are not many people depicted who are not white men. So, it is good to see through this year’s Games that this is a situation that continues to change in sport.

[P.J.H.]