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Thanks Patrick!

Crispin



> On 24 Feb 2015, at 13:01, Bourne, Patrick <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> This is an email sent via the SHCG List. If you reply to this message, your message will be sent to all the people on the list, not just the author of this message.
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> 
> I'm not sure if this helps, but... according to our database Leeds Museums & Galleries has listed in its collections 17 items relating Women's League of Health and Beauty. 
> 
> Our constituent information on the League is as follows:
> In 1930 Prunella Stack started the Women's League Of Health And Beauty in Britain. The motto was 'Movement Is Life' and the League promoted the idea of a healthy mind and a healthy body. The League had thousands of members who put on huge displays in parks and other venues.
> 
> Physical fitness was seen as important in the stylish thirties and in various forms was popular across Europe especially in Germany and Austria. This resulted in some Tyrolean styles creeping into sportswear fashion which began to be more practical and actually allowed for movement. Skating skirts became shorter than ever before and in 1933 the Tennis star Alice Marble wore shorts at the Wimbledon season.
> 
> 75 years on (Women's hour interview in 2005)
> "The Women's League of Health and Beauty is one of the first exercise systems ever conceived in this country. For several generations of women since the 1930's it has been their first and long-lasting exposure to keep-fit. This year it celebrates its 75th Anniversary.
> 
> The movement was founded by Mary Bagot Stack, a First World War widow, who suffered from rheumatic fever. She was determined to introduce exercise, often described as "physical poetry", which would be accessible to women of all walks of life. By 1935, when she died prematurely, the movement had a massive following. Since then the League has ditched its once trademark uniform of short black satin pants and white shirts and changed its name to the Fitness League. "
> 
> Still exists as "The Fitness League"
> The Fitness League History (from www.thefitnessleague.com)
> In 1930 Mary Bagot Stack created the Women’s League of Health & Beauty. Her vision was of “a league of women who will renew their energy in themselves and for themselves day by day”. She believed completely in the power of women to make the world a better place to live in.
> 
> Her work started in London where in 1925 she opened her Bagot Stack Health School. By 1930 she had trained enough enthusiastic young teachers to help her launch her ‘Women’s League’ which enjoyed immediate and outstanding success - the growth was spectacular. Mary Bagot Stack was a total inspiration and her ‘health training’ classes combined exactly the right mixture of hard work and fun so that after only 7 years since its inception 166,000 women had joined the League.
> 
> Mary Bagot Stack died in 1935 at the age of 50. That her movement has survived more than 70 years beyond her death is testament not only to the devotion that she inspired in her daughter Prunella and friends Peggy and Joan St.Lo who carried on her work, but to the true and lasting value of the idea itself.
> 
> The outbreak of the Second World War arrested the League’s startling expansion as many teachers and members responded to the call to National Service. Peggy and Joan St.Lo carried on the administration in London, while 50 centres across the country were kept going by teachers who also ran special classes, raised funds and organised entertainments for factory, civil defence, nurses and service personnel.
> 
> After the war there was an increase in the number of teachers and members as classes and the Bagot Stack Health College re-opened, but the extraordinary growth seen in the pre-war years was never to be repeated. The two year full time teacher training course was replaced in 1969 by a part-time training course.
> 
> The continuing popularity of Mary Bagot Stack’s ‘League’ rests in the fact that its exercise principles are based on the structure of the human body which never changes. Her recipe for classes - hard work, good fun, sociable – has a lasting appeal for the thousands who have enjoyed high levels of fitness for the greater part of their lives.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> In terms of the objects in our collection (all transfers from Harrogate Museums & Arts)
> 
> One is a programme: 
> 'The Women's League of Health & Beauty presents MOVEMENT IS LIFE, Civic Theatre, Leeds, Saturday May 10th 1952, owned by Nan Watson, a member of the Leeds branch of the Women's League of Health and Beauty.  With signatures of all the participants on the back'
> 
> There is also a photograph, taken at an earlier (1935) Movement Is Life event, in the same building. This is by Yorkshire Post Newspapers, and shows members of the League of Health photographed on the stairs of Leeds Civic Theatre (now the City Museum), (It's on our flickr page too https://www.flickr.com/photos/leedsmuseumsandgalleries/6195488748/ )
> 
> A brief blurb inside the programme for the 10 May 1952 event states that 'The Women's League of Health & Beauty was founded in 1930 and grew so rapidly that by the beginning of the war its membership numbered 166,000. Mrs. Bagot Stack [lovely name!], the Founder, evolved a system of physical exercises which are specially designed to meet the needs of the women of this industrial age, and to counteract the evil effects of modern urban civilization.'
> 
> The programme also lists the different types of activities on offer: Basic work (warming up, heads and shoulders, legs, spine, legs - for elementary and medium); Junior League; 18th Century Charm; Poise and Balance; Waltz in White, "Frosty the Snowman" (for Juniors); Design and Ribbons (advanced); over 40's (swinging waists); Outdoor Girl; Clubs and Balls; Tango Waists (Advanced); Jamboree!, and a finale of God Save the Queen to finish off. 
> 
> There is also a list of times for the Leeds and Wakefield classes, one of which (on a Thursday 2-3pm ) was advertised as a 'special class for the older woman and for the mother with children - bring them with you!', and information about the membership fees, which the programme claims, 'are within everyone's means': 2/6 to join, 3/6 for an entrance badge, 1/- for each Health class and 9d. for Dancing. 
> 
> The other items, all by the same donor, are 2 rhythmic gymnastic ribbons, a rounders bat, a book of exercises by Prunella Stack, 'Building the Body Beautiful - the Bagot Stack Stretch-and-Swing Sytstem" by Mrs Bagot Stack, a book of knicker patterns, a membership card for 1970-1, 3 copies of the League's 'Health and Beauty' magazine and 3 copies of 'Poise - the Health and Beauty magazine' (the name appeared to change around 1969). 
> 
> I hope this may be of some help.
> 
> Patrick Bourne
> Assistant Community Curator, Abbey House Museum.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Social History Curators Group email list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Crispin Paine
> Sent: 24 February 2015 12:12
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Women's League of Health and Beauty
> 
> This is an email sent via the SHCG List. If you reply to this message, your message will be sent to all the people on the list, not just the author of this message.
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> 
> Dear all
> 
> I’ve arranged to interview a 95-year-old cousin, who between the wars was a leading WLHB trainer in the South East. I know zilch about this - can anyone point me to areas to explore and questions to ask?
> 
> Crispin
> The SHCG list is provided for members of Social History Curators Group to discuss subjects relevant to social history in museums. To join SHCG visit www.shcg.org.uk . Opinions expressed in this email are the responsibility of the author and are not necessarily shared by SHCG. To leave the list do not reply to this message but send an email to [log in to unmask] with a blank subject line and these words as the body of the email: SIGNOFF SHCG-LIST
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> The SHCG list is provided for members of Social History Curators Group to discuss subjects relevant to social history in museums. To join SHCG visit www.shcg.org.uk . Opinions expressed in this email are the responsibility of the author and are not necessarily shared by SHCG. To leave the list do not reply to this message but send an email to [log in to unmask] with a blank subject line and these words as the body of the email: SIGNOFF SHCG-LIST

The SHCG list is provided for members of Social History Curators Group to discuss subjects relevant to social history in museums. To join SHCG visit www.shcg.org.uk . Opinions expressed in this email are the responsibility of the author and are not necessarily shared by SHCG. To leave the list do not reply to this message but send an email to [log in to unmask] with a blank subject line and these words as the body of the email: SIGNOFF SHCG-LIST