JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
It is little wonder that in the advanced period of modern communication and all-points-being-connected-to-almost-every-other-point (at least in the U.S.) that the aspect of physical culture was made available to the great unwashed and slightly-privileged masses. These images (available from the New York Public Library Digital Collection) introduced bunches of people to the possibilities of being physically fit, and doing something about it.
There has been instruction of physical training for many centuries, but outside of military exercise and its related bits teaching everyday people how to keep themselves healthy via exercise just didn't exist. Perhaps this interest exhibited below was a result of recent medical issues like the massive influenza outbreak, or polio, or rubella, and that physical exercise might be able to address that. Or perhaps it had to do with the physical culture shown the troops during WWI. In any event, the distribution of that information by the early '20's was certainly close to being free, so that it could reach people as never before. And in this special case, the free-ness came with a purchase of a pack of smokes, as these are tobacco cards; so the longer you smoked the more you would look at these cards, and via the same sort of constant exposure that brought you to smoking in the first place might lead you to exercising and getting healthier so that you could live longer to smoke more ciggies.
All of the exercises could be done without equipment, meaning that anyone--at any time--could take a sip from the fitness cup. Or men could--there was a separate set of images for women, which will follow in just a moment on this blog.
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