Physiologists, Physicians, and Physical Educators: Nineteenth Century Biology and Exercise, Hygienic and Educative

In 1893, Francis Amasa Walker (Harvard, LLD, 1883 and signatory to the call for the 1889 Boston Conference on Physical Training), president of the Massachusetts Institute on Technology, delivered Harvard's Phi Beta Kappa address. The subject was ‘College Athletics’. Three months later the full text of Walker's remarks appeared in The Harvard Graduates Magazine. [ ¹ ] The decision to open volume II of the new publication with a discussion devoted to athletics — and gymnastics — might have been the idiosyncratic choice of the editor. More likely, however, it was prompted by the intense interest which arose after the Civil War in matters pertaining to health (both personal and public), callisthenics, gymnastics, physical training, out-of-door pursuits, and competitive athletics.