Gymnastics, men's
- Daily chores
- Gymnasiums are built
- Competitions
- Decline
Daily Chores
Although physical education was never a curricular requirement for male students at Mount Allison, exercise was worked into their daily routine from the beginning. When Mount Allison’s first institution, the male-only Wesleyan Academy, opened its doors in 1843, students had to chop the wood for their dormitory heaters and retrieve their own water from a spring at the foot of a hill. William Ryan, a student at the Academy between 1855 and 1857, recalled in an issue of The Wesleyan (17 January 1923):
“… the old Academy had forty rooms for students and each room had a stove and a big wood box and was occupied by two boys. One boy cut the wood down in the yard and the other boy carried it upstairs and put it in the box.”
To supplement the students’ daily chores, and to increase opportunities for exercise, games such as hurley and handball were also played.
Mount Allison students, wrestling, ca. 1895
Home and Topics - Galleries - Timeline - Maps
Copyright - Footnotes - Credits - Technical Information - Feedback
© 2008 Mount Allison University Archives
Sackville, New Brunswick
All Rights Reserved
Maintained by the Mount Allison University Archives
This project was funded by the Marjorie Young Bell Endowment Fund