Mary Outerbridge
Mary Ewing Outerbridge (born March 9, 1852 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † May 3, 1886 in New York ) was a pioneer of modern tennis in the United States . She is also known as the "mother" of American tennis.
biography
Outerbridge was born in Philadelphia in 1852 to Alexander Ewing Outerbridge and his wife Layura Catherine Harvey. She later moved to the New York District Staten Iceland . During a visit to relatives in Bermuda around 1874, she learned about modern tennis, invented by Walter Clopton Wingfield in the same year, through English soldiers. She later built a tennis court on the grounds of the Staten Island Cricket Club . The club's president, August Emilius Outerbridge, was her brother. The first American tennis championship took place on the premises of the club in 1880.
Outerbridge died in 1886 at the age of 34. In 1981 she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame .
In the 1930s, Malcolm Whitman , and later William Henderson, took the view that Outerbridge had introduced a set to North America in early 1874 and thus played the first tennis on American soil. This is now considered dubious as Wingfield did not publish its rule book, which was sold with the sets, until February 25, 1874. It is more likely that she only brought the tennis set with her from another stay in Bermuda in May 1875. Around 1874, James Dwight , the "father" of American tennis, played tennis at Boston , probably also on a farm in Arizona .
Sources and web links
- B. Collins: History of Tennis. 2nd Edition. New Chapter Press, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-942257-70-0 , p. 624.
- Mary Outerbridge in the "International Tennis Hall of Fame" (English; with picture)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b H. Gillmeister: Cultural history of tennis. Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-7705-2618-X , p. 258.
- ^ M. Whitman: Tennis Origins and Mysteries. With an historical bibliography by Robert W. Henderson . Derrydale Press, New York NY 1932. (Reprinted by David & Charles, Mineola, NY 2004, ISBN 0-486-43357-9 )
- ^ R. Henderson: Ball, Bat and Bishop. The Origin of Ball Games. Rockport Press, New York 1947. (Reprinted from University of Illinois Press, 2001, ISBN 0-252-06992-7 )
- ^ M. Summerhayes: Vanished Arizona. Bison Books, 1911. (Reprinted from University of Nebraska Press, 1979, ISBN 0-8032-9105-1 )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Outerbridge, Mary |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Outerbridge, Mary Ewing |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American tennis pioneer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 9, 1852 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Philadelphia , USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 3, 1886 |
| Place of death | Staten Island , New York City |