Margaret Abbott
Margaret Abbott | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Calcutta, British India | |||||||||||||||
Died | June 10, 1955 Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S. | (aged 76)||||||||||||||
Height | 5 ft 11 in (180 cm)[2] | ||||||||||||||
Sporting nationality | United States | ||||||||||||||
Spouse | |||||||||||||||
Children | 4, including Philip | ||||||||||||||
Career | |||||||||||||||
Status | Amateur | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
Margaret Ives Abbott (June 15, 1878 – June 10, 1955) was an American
Born in
In December 1902, she married the writer Finley Peter Dunne. They later moved to New York and had four children. Abbott died at the age of 76 in 1955, never realizing that she won an Olympic event. She was not well known until Paula Welch, a professor at the University of Florida, researched her life. In 2018, The New York Times published her belated obituary.
Life and career
Early life
Margaret Ives Abbott was born on June 15, 1878, in
In the late nineteenth century, women were restricted from competing in various sports. Golf clubs allowed women to play only if they were accompanied by a man. Abbott, along with her mother, began playing golf at the
Paris Olympics
The
The Olympics coincided with the
Abbott learned about the tournament from a newspaper notice. Taking a break from her studies, she decided to sign up for the event.[17] She won with a score of 47 strokes.[6] Pauline Whittier was the runner-up, with 49 strokes, while Abbie Pratt finished 3rd with 53 strokes.[6] Mary Abbott also participated in the event and tied for seventh place with a score of 65.[11] All ten competitors played in long skirts and hats.[2] According to Philip Dunne, his mother would later tell her family she won the tournament "because all the French girls apparently misunderstood the nature of the game scheduled that day and turned up to play in high heels and tight skirts".[18]
For her victory Abbott was awarded an old Saxon porcelain bowl mounted in chiseled gold.[6] The winners of some events at the Paris games were awarded rectangular gold, silver, and bronze medals designed by French sculptor Frédéric Vernon.[19] No medals were awarded for many other events, including golf, with prizes instead being cups, bowls, and other similar trophies.[20] Abbott's victory was reported in the Chicago Tribune.[6]
Later life
Abbott stayed in Paris and won a French championship before returning to America in 1901.[21] She married the writer Finley Peter Dunne on December 9, 1902. According to the Chicago Tribune, although the wedding ceremony "was celebrated as quietly and with as little display as possible", they received telegrams from "dozens of [...] literary lights", including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.[22] The couple later settled in New York City.[21] They had four children, including Philip Dunne.[23] Abbott did not compete in many tournaments due to a knee injury caused by a childhood accident.[18] Records of Abbott's ties to the Chicago Golf Club were destroyed in the 1912 clubhouse fire.[18] Abbott died at the age of 76 on June 10, 1955,[2] in Greenwich, Connecticut, five days before she would have turned 77.[7]
Legacy
Abbott never realized that she participated in and became the first American woman to win an Olympic event.[2] She was not well known until Paula Welch, a professor at the University of Florida and a member of the Olympics Board of Directors, researched her life during the 1970s when she first saw Abbott mentioned as an Olympic champion in 1973. Welch spent a decade examining newspaper articles that mentioned Abbott's successes in various golfing competitions.[24] In the mid-1980s, she contacted Philip, Abbott's son, informing him about his mother's Olympic victory.[25] Analyzing the reasons for her obscurity, Welch said: "We didn't have the coverage that we have today [...] She came back. She got married. She raised her family. She played some golf, but she didn't really pursue it in tournaments."[2]
Writing for Golf Digest in 1984, Philip wrote: "It's not every day that you learn your mother was an Olympic champion, 80-odd years after the fact. The champion herself had told us only that she had won the golf championship of Paris."[26] In 1996, Abbott was the featured athlete of the 1900 Olympics in the official Olympics program of the Atlanta games.[27] After 1904, golf was not included in the Olympic Games until the 2016 Summer Olympics.[28] In 2018, The New York Times published her belated obituary.[2]
References
- ^ Fuller (2018), p. 113.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Fox (2018).
- ^ Fox (2018); Taylor (2021); Rumore (2021); Mallon & Jerris (2011), p. 25.
- ^ a b Fox (2018); Rumore (2021); Abbott (1900); Taylor (2021).
- ^ Welch 1982, p. 753
- ^ a b c d e Barnard (1900).
- ^ a b Taylor (2021).
- ^ Holmes (2016); Lieberman (2016).
- ^ Holmes (2016).
- ^ Mallon (1998), p. 129.
- ^ a b Mallon (1998).
- ^ Olympics.
- ^ Mallon (1998), pp. 129, 131.
- ^ Fox (2018); Holmes (2016); Costa & Guthrie (1994), p. 124.
- ^ Golf Illustrated (1900), p. 28.
- ^ Fox (2018); Mallon (1998), p. 129.
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica (2006).
- ^ a b c Welch (1982), p. 754.
- ^ Paris 1900 Medals.
- ^ Mallon (1998), p. 9.
- ^ a b Fox (2018); Rumore (2021).
- ^ Rumore (2021).
- ^ Ellis (1969), p. 260.
- ^ Holmes (2016); Welch (1982), p. 752.
- ^ Fox (2018); Holmes (2016).
- ^ Olympics (2021); USOPM.
- ^ University of Florida (1996).
- ^ Lieberman (2016).
Works cited
Online sources
- "Margaret Abbott: A Study Break". Encyclopædia Britannica. January 19, 2006. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- Fox, Margalit (March 8, 2018). "Margaret Abbott: The First American Woman to Win an Olympic Championship". The New York Times. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- Holmes, Tao Tao (August 10, 2016). "The First American Woman to Win an Olympic Championship Didn't Even Know It". OCLC 960889351. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- Lieberman, Stuart (March 21, 2016). "Margaret Abbott Aced Team USA's First Women's Olympic Gold Medal and Didn't Know It". United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee. Archived from the original on March 24, 2016. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- "Margaret Ives Abbott". Olympic Games. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- "Margaret Abbott, the Olympic Golf Champion Who Died Without Knowing It". Olympic Games. October 5, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
- "Olympic Games Paris 1900 — Medal Design". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
- Rumore, Kori (August 4, 2021). "Chicago Golfer Margaret Abbott was the 1st American Woman to Win a Gold Medal at the Olympics – But She Never Knew it. Here's Why". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- Taylor, Katie (2021). "Margaret Ives Abbott". National Women's History Museum. Archived from the original on June 23, 2022. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- "An Unknowing Historymaker: Margaret Abbott was the First American Female to be an Olympic Champion". United States Olympic & Paralympic Museum. March 7, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
- "Recognizing First U.S. Women's Champion Is A Step In The Right Direction". University of Florida. July 9, 1996. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
Print sources
- Abbott, Mary (1900). A Woman's Paris: A Handbook of Every-day Living in the French Capital. Small, Maynard & Company – via the Internet Archive.
- Barnard, C. I. (October 6, 1900). Written at Paris. "Wins Women's Golf Cup. — Miss Margaret Abbott Leads Play Near Paris". Chicago Tribune. Chicago. p. 9. Retrieved June 16, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Playing Dress-Up Hurt Athletes in 1900". Newspapers.com.
- Costa, D. Margaret; Guthrie, Sharon Ruth, eds. (1994). Women and Sport: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Human Kinetics. ISBN 978-0-87322-686-8 – via the Internet Archive.
- Ellis, Elmer (1969) [1941]. Mr. Dooley's America: A Life of Finley Peter Dunne. Archon Books. ISBN 978-0-208-00734-6 – via the Internet Archive.
- Emery, Lynne (1984). "Women's Participation in the Olympic Games: A Historical Perspective". .
- Fuller, Linda K. (2018). Female Olympian and Paralympian Events: Analyses, Backgrounds, and Timelines. ISBN 978-3-319-76792-5 – via Google Books.
- Mallon, Bill (1998). The 1900 Olympic Games: Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. .
- Mallon, Bill; Jerris, Randon (2011). Historical Dictionary of Golf. ISBN 978-0-8108-7465-7 – via Google Books.
- "International Tournament at Compiègne". Golf Illustrated. Vol. 6, no. 70. London. October 12, 1900. pp. 28–29 – via Google Books.
- Warner, Patricia Campbell (2006). "Part One: The Influence of Fashion. Chapter 5, Women Enter the Olympics: A Sleeker Swimsuit". When the Girls Came Out to Play: The Birth of American Sportswear. ISBN 978-1-55849-548-7.
- Welch, Paula (1982). "Search for Margaret Abbott" (PDF). Olympic Review. 182: 752–754. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 12, 2016. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
External links
- Margaret Abbott at Olympics.com
- Margaret Abbott at Olympedia
- Media related to Margaret Abbott at Wikimedia Commons