Eva Morrison (LOC)

Bain News Service,, publisher.

Eva Morrison

[between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915]

1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.

Notes:
 Title from unverified data provided by the Bain News Service on the negatives or caption cards.
Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).

Subjects:
 Swimming
Women

Format: Glass negatives.

Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.

Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

General information about the Bain Collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.ggbain

Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.09222

Call Number: LC-B2- 2200-14

Comments and faves

  1. ★

    ‹shin›, luvs2create2, gwydasme, maximolly, and 34 other people added this photo to their favorites.

  2. angvou (59 months ago | reply)

    I would think this bathing suit is a little risque for 1910-15. Looks later to me

  3. pennylrichardsca (59 months ago | reply)

    Eva Morrison of Roxbury MA was a prominent distance swimmer in the 1920s, best remembered for making a record-breaking time in the Boston Light Swim, and training to swim the English Channel at the same time as Gertrude Ederle did. She served on the initial Board of Governors for the International Professional Swimmers' Association when it formed in 1927. Morrison was inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 1973.

    nycswim.net/Article/ArticleTemplate.aspx?Arti cle_ID=796
    www.nycswim.org/Article/ArticleTemplate.aspx? Article_ID=983

  4. Josh Glenn (59 months ago | reply)

    There's a postcard of Morrison here. I guess PennyLRichardsCA beat me to it!

  5. Muffet (58 months ago | reply)

    I own a copy of the postcard mentioned above, and the photo paper (stampbox AZO with four squares in the corners) dates it between 1925 and 1940, so I'm guessing later as well, even though the card could have been published later.

  6. timcasey75 (58 months ago | reply)

    That's my aunt! Well, grand aunt, actually. She was born around1900, so the dates on the photo are probably ten years too early. I had heard she was a swimming champ. Although I knew her forty years later, she's quite recognizable.

    Family stories: As a kid in the 1960s, Eva's name kept coming up in the newspapers for rescuing sailors when she saw boats in distress out on the ocean, usualy during a nor'easter. She lived in Scituate, MA at the top of a cliff right on the ocean. She'd have to put down what she was doing in the kitchen, whose window faced the sea, run down a rickety flight of stairs, and jump into the churning water to save some 200-lb guy thirty years her junior! She was always ticked off at being subjected to such a nuisance, as if she had had to go out in the yard to chase off a neighbor's dog or something.

    She was loads of fun to be around for us kids - though my mum tells me that her jokes tended to get a bit risque!

  7. donovanbeeson (58 months ago | reply)

    I love her monogram on the bathing suit.

  8. linnerlu (57 months ago | reply)

    timcasey75, thanks for a great comment about your great aunt! I always wonder about these people in old photographs, and wonder about their lives. It's so unusual to actually have my curiosity answered in this case!

  9. ShadeFell (56 months ago | reply)

    She looks so athletic and full of life!
    timcasey75, thanks for the awesome story.

  10. wiggiewormdog (44 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called piece of heaven, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

  11. wiggiewormdog (44 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called soulful group, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

  12. ann_arbor_deadhead (39 months ago | reply)

    i am a big fan of women's sports, so it is always nice to see and hear about women like Eva who dared to be athletic in a time when women and girls were almost always discouraged from being too serious about sports. even today it is not always easy to be a female athlete, back then it was even harder.

  13. Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (36 months ago | reply)

    The set:


    I started an entry for her in Wikipedia:
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Morrison

  14. grimble nibitz (27 months ago | reply)

    The man with Eve in this was named George Lord, and was a photographer of the period in the Boston area, I had a load of his stuff and this image was included.

  15. This photo was invited and added to the Good old Barefoot days group.

  16. This photo was invited and added to the BAREFOOT LIVING group.

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