Publication of "The Sporting Woman: A Book of Days"

Catalog entries list January 1, 1989 as the publication date for Sally Fox’s The Sporting Woman: A Book of Days, a groundbreaking illustrated volume that brought historical images of women in sport and physical activity to a wide audience.

In this book, Fox assembled photographs, prints, and drawings showing women skating, mountaineering, cycling, sailing, and engaging in other athletic pursuits from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many of these activities challenged contemporary expectations of femininity and domesticity, revealing women as adventurous, strong, and physically capable.

By presenting a year’s worth of images, Fox demonstrated that women’s participation in sport was neither marginal nor rare, but woven into everyday life across cultures and social classes. The volume resonated with the late-1980s context of expanding women’s athletics in the wake of Title IX, offering historical depth to contemporary discussions of gender and sport.

Although the exact trade release date is not always specified, the cataloged day and year mark the arrival of a work that helped redefine visual documentation of women’s physical culture. The book has since served as a resource for historians, curators, and activists seeking to show that women’s athletic achievements have long-standing roots rather than being a recent phenomenon.