This project began many years ago in the nether regions of Widener Library at Harvard. As a graduate student in the History of Science, I became interested in medical views and treatment of women and studied "the cult of female invalidism" that pervaded American culture in the late nineteenth century. Browsing through popular magazines and newspapers of the period, I therefore was surprised to find images of healthy women—young girls playing croquet and badminton, ladies exercising at home in loose-fitting garb, college students riding bikes and rowing boats
