A proposal to build a gymnasium on the second floor of the Wren Building? A swimming pool in the basement of the women’s dormitory? Basketball at William & Mary Hall without heat? Stadium expansion controversy? This and much more are to be found in Swem Library’s exhibit “Healthful and Recreative: Fields for Fitness, Courts for Competition, and Arenas for Athletics, 1900-1970.” Concentrating on the buildings and fields opened from 1900 to 1970, the exhibit uses documents, images, and memorabilia from Swem’s Special Collections Research Center to explore how the growth of athletic facilities was key to expanding infrastructure, attracting students, and maintaining alumni interest as William & Mary grew from an all-male college of 200 students to a university of over 5,000 full-time students.
Images of the installed exhibit cases are available from the SCRC on Flickr. Digital companions to the exhibit will be available online via YouTube (videos only), and the W@M Digital Archive and on Swem Library's iPods. They include: videos marking the dedication of Zable Stadium and Plumeri Park; the song "Ode to Cary Field" written to protest the proposed stadium expansion of 1979-1981; an audio recording from the victory rally after William & Mary defeated the Navy football team in 1967; "College Athletics as Big Business--Where to Now?" from the program Williamsburg Weekly in Spring 1981; the WMBG radio program Information Point: The College Athletic Study in 1974. A timeline following the buildings and fields featured in the exhibit is also available. Finally, the SCRC Wiki provides a great deal of information about campus buildings.
The cases in the Nancy Marshall (Rotunda) Gallery explore current and past athletic buildings on campus from William & Mary’s first gymnasium built in 1900 through William & Mary Hall, which hosted its first basketball game in December 1970. One section relates the story of William & Mary’s first gymnasium at one time proposed for the second floor of the Wren Building. Correspondence between College President Lyon G. Tyler and a member of the Board of Visitors in favor of the plan displays Tyler’s skepticism. Another section highlights the history of Blow Gym from W.A.R. Goodwin’s 1920s fundraising ledger through expansion and improvements until it was renovated into a classroom and administrative building in the 1990s. Another section features the first athletic facilities built specifically for women including a blueprint of Jefferson Hall and games in action on the Barksdale Athletic Fields. The gallery is rounded out with a look at the multiple users of Adair and William & Mary Halls with photographs, tickets, and other material from Adair’s dedication, the first frigid basketball game in William & Mary Hall, and other events.
The exhibit continues in the adjoining Special Collections Research Center with sections about Cary Field and early tennis courts. Notable is the display of a baseball uniform from a member of the class of 1933. One case highlights the early years of Cary Field, which was named in 1909 by the Board of Visitors after several gifts for improving the field by T. Archibald Cary. Despite use by teams for games and practices, the field continued to hold agricultural interest as illustrated through a 1913 letter from a Williamsburg resident requesting access to the field for his cow. Visitors can follow the expansion of Cary Field and stadium construction during the Great Depression, 1980 stadium expansion controversy, the variety of athletic teams formerly based at Cary Field, and the dedication of Zable Stadium through photographs, brochures, tickets, and other material. Another section follows the construction, expansion, and irregular movement of early tennis courts across campus and features a William & Mary student’s tennis racquet. The exhibit concludes with enlarged aerial photographs of campus from the 1920s to the present showcasing the changing footprint of athletic fields and buildings across campus.
“Healthful and Recreative: Fields for Fitness, Courts for Competition, and Arenas for Athletics, 1900-1970” was on display in the Nancy Marshall Gallery and the Special Collections Research Center, located on the first floor of Swem Library.
All material is from the Special Collections Research Center, Earl Gregg Swem Library. Curator: Amy Schindler, University Archivist; Exhibit Design and Installation: Chandi Singer, Warren E. Burger Archives Specialist; Installers: Ellen Cloyed, Serials Cataloger, Katie Moore, SCRC student, Lily Rubino, SCRC student; Poster Graphics: Karen McCluney, Swem Graphic Artist; Ticket and Title Graphics: Barbara Gaut, SCRC Volunteer.