CATHERINE BEECHER

Catharine Beecher, in full Catharine Esther

Beecher, (born September 6, 1800, East
Hampton, New York, U.S.—died May 12,
1878, Elmira, New York), American educator
and author who popularized and shaped
a conservative ideological movement to both
elevate and entrench women’s place in the
domestic sphere of American culture. Beecher
was the eldest daughter in one of the most
remarkable families of the 19th century. She
was the daughter of Lyman Beecher as well as
the sister of Edward and Henry Ward
Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe and the half
sister of Isabella Beecher Hooker, to name only
the most prominent of her siblings. She grew up
in an atmosphere of learning but, because she
was female, did not receive much
formal education. From 1810 she lived
in Litchfield, Connecticut, where she attended
schools for young ladies while independently
studying Latin, philosophy, and mathematics.
After the death of her mother in 1816 she had
much of the care of the family. In 1821 she
became a schoolteacher, and in 1823 she and
her sister Mary established a girls’ school that
four years later became the Hartford Female
Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut, an innovative
institution in which, for example, she introduced
calisthenics in a course of physical education.
Moving with her father to Cincinnati, Ohio, in
1832, Beecher opened the Western Female
Institute; financial difficulties and her precarious
health closed the school five years later. The
rest of her life was devoted to the development
of educational facilities in the Midwest and to the
promotion of equal educational opportunities for
women. She worked through the Board of
National Popular Education (1847–48), a private
agency headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, and
in 1852 founded the American Woman’s
Educational Association to recruit and train
teachers to staff schools on the frontier. She
inspired the founding of several women’s
colleges in the Midwest, and her writings did
much to introduce domestic science into the
American school curriculum.
NIELS BUKH

Around 1916–1917 the Danish gymnastics

pedagogue Niels Bukh (1880–1950) created, in
an international sense, a revolutionary men's
gymnastics, and in 1920 he established
Denmark's and the world's first folk high
school of physical education and sport. During
the 1930s, Niels Bukh and his team of gymnasts
first became a symbol for the dynamic Danish
farming community, and then for the face of
Denmark both at home and abroad. Bukh
changed the stereotypical male expression of
bodily dynamics, which in Danish rural
gymnastics had been almost military. He made it
legitimate for the young lads to get in close
physical contact and to work in pairs in order to
create beautiful masculine gymnastic
choreographies. Within the aesthetic history of
masculinity, it has often been male homosexual
aestheticians, designers, musicians, dancers,
and so on who have opened new avenues for
the expression of male emotion, which was a
trademark of Bukh's achievements, too.

CLARK HETHERINGTON

As a pioneer in the American play

movement, Dr. Clark W. Hetherington was a
philosopher, teacher, and physical
education administrator at the university,
state, and national levels. Dr. Hetherington
believed that “Play is the central element in
the scheme of human nature that makes
volition possible... Without play man is
inconceivable; play makes volition and
rational living possible. There is no meaning
to the phrase 'mere play,' for play is the most
important activity in life.”1Earning a
bachelor’s degree in Education from
Stanford University in 1895, Dr.
Hetherington continued to assist in the
university's Physical Training Department
for the next year. He moved from Stanford,
California to be the Director of Physical
Training at the Whittier Reform School,
which at that time was just outside of Los
Angeles. For two years Dr. Hetherington, in
the words of a contemporary Dr. George J.
Fisher, “organized the play of the inmates,
the first time such a thing had been dreamed
of in a reformatory. His work had a
profound effect both upon the boys and
upon the institution.”2In 1898, Dr.
Hetherington moved east to Worcester,
Massachusetts to become a Fellow and
Assistant Professor in Psychology at Clark
University. Two years later, Dr.
Hetherington moved to Columbia, Missouri,
where he became a Professor of Physical
Education and Director of Athletics at the
University of Missouri (MU). As MU's first
athletic director, he organized a centralized
athletics department that included all
students through intercollegiate
competitions, intramural recreation, and
women's activities.4 He also was one of the
founders of the Missouri Valley Conference
division in 1907.

Vivat Victorius Fridericus Franciscus

"Franz" Nachtegall (October 3, 1777 – 12
May 1847)[1] was an early proponent and
directly responsible for introducing physical
education in schools of Denmark.[2][3]He was
born in Copenhagen on October 3, 1777.
He took lessons of fencing and vaulting in
childhood.Nachtegall was apparently
stimulated to begin
teaching gymnastics after reading
the GutsMuths manual of gymnastics. In
1799 he was invited to teach gymnastics at
the Vesterbro school.In 1804 he was
appointed as the first director of a training
school for the teaching of gymnastics to
the army of Denmark. This school provided
instructions for future NCOs in both the
army and navy. In 1805 he prepared a
detailed gymnastic manual for the military
course.[2]In 1807 he was appointed
professor of gymnastics at Copenhagen
University. In 1808 he was awarded an
honorarium for giving free instructions to
civilians, who were interested in teaching
physical education.[2]From 1821 to 1842,
Nachtegall was Director of Gymnastics, with
oversight of the programs of the army and
navy.[