Thought you might like these images from the Spalding Archery catalgue of 1910

Thanks for posting! Bet not many bought those eleven dollar arrows. Doubt I'd have gotten into archery if a tie was required, let alone the suit!

Most excellent Phil, thank you!

Great history. Thanks for sharing.

Actually, if you pay attention to our archery history, you will see guys like Art Young, Will Compton and Saxton Pope hunting while wearing shirts and ties. It was of the time, and folks nowadays should maybe learn what was "common" back then, and not just for the elite. And those suit wearing people are the fathers of the sport that lead to bowhunting and our modern bow seasons. A little understanding of what was, will lead to why we have what is now.

Awesome posts Phil. Love it.

Phil - Many thanks for posting these photos. George is spot on about those who came before and helped develop this great sport.

The items listed in the catalog were some of the finest quality archer tackle ever made. I would like a few of those yew bows at $24 each and maybe 10 dozen of those special footed arrows at $11 per dozen. I've got my own woolens, but I haven't worn a tie for several years.

A lot of kids now days probably couldn't shoot Bows, because their pants would fall down!

I got one of them! -But I was late for the $24 sale. Got two of them for $100, and one needs some TLC. The one pictured is doing great, 100+ years old.

THANK YOU PHIL! Now I know where my Aldred probably came from- and "Men's Footed Arrows, $10" that's all I need now...

I have a Tux for my music gigs, but not the really cool clothes.

If only I could "time machine" myself for an afternoon or weekend. I have a proper bowler hat in the closet, and would do my best to attire myself in fitting fashion of the times. All would be for naught, though, because...as a lefty, I would not have been permitted on many English Archery fields!!!!

THANK YOU, PHIL, for this most excellent of postings!

Harry- I'm shooting mine lefty! That was weeks ago and lightning didn't strike nor did the earth open up beneath my feet. Get out that bowler hat.

Hmmm, Dan W., maybe for Denton Hill next year??!!!

I don't think I could come to full draw wearing a corset.

It might be more fun to time-travel the catalog ladies to current day and let them shoot wearing modern undergarments, cargo pants, Under-Armor, fleece and lug soled boots. I predict they would gain at least an inch of draw length.

Any woman who survived childbirth in 1910 was a lot tougher than the costumes of the day tried to indicate.

Thanks for the post, Phil. Seeing the picture of Will Thompson makes me want to take a drive to his house. It is still standing and probably less than a half an hour from me. Just one of those things I keep meaning to do. I have a couple of older yew longbows and just can't bring myself to even string them, as I have stated before, I'm a chicken and don't want them to break. Way to go Dan W. Lance.

I like seeing stuff like this. Great post, thanks.

Very cool! Thanks

Good history pictures. Thank you for posting.

Back in the 60's the uniform of the day at Target/American round shoots was white pants and white shirts.

Men and women.

Great post of how archery progressed though time.

Hugh

Really nice old pics sir.

Saved all of them.

Ditto HARRY.

18. That no archer shall be allowed on the grounds if he is known to shoot left-handed.

http://www.archerylibrary.com/books/witchery/docs/appendix/appendix_3.html

How times have changed. : )

The dress of the day, in all activities, was a show of respect to your fellow man. Something our world could use a little of now days.

One of the two Aldreds I got was already broken- but according to two experts whom I sent pics of it was fractured from something other than shooting (whacked on the side, or badly mis-strung) so that one is already a wall hanger. Might be possible to fix the broke one, possibly even to shooting condition. Remains to be seen, though.

In fact, ALL my bows (and everyone else's!) are wall hangers when we're not shooting them.

I don't want Maury Thompson spinning in his grave so here I am shooting RH, even standing upright; not like the left-handed caveman archer I usually am. Better hold on to your hat, Harry. ;-)

I can remember my grandpa always wore a tie when I was a kid.

Tell us how it feels Dan to hold and shoot a bow that is at least 100 years old ...

Phil I think I've already told YOU- also you know how it feels better than anyone else out there.

But anyway, it really feels great. When you have 72" limbs bending to 28" it feels smooooooth! When those 72" limbs are very light wt. Yew wood the release feels light, instantaneous & shock free. Even with a heavy, soggy old Dacron string. The arrows I use are too heavy for very zippy flight (560 grain, 30" 45-50# spined POC originally for a different bow, but Phil has advised me that heavy arrows are safer- at first- for reusing an old bow). But plenty of energy for decent trajectory out to 45-50 yards. With a modern, low-stretch light wt. string- more equivalent to a good Linen string than Dacron- and proper arrows in 420 or so grains out of this 46# bow, I think the speed would be respectable by any standard. This was the equipment set-up used to shoot York Rounds (100 yards?) and longer for over 100 years.

I would love to shoot a new but otherwise identical Yew long bow to feel if there is a difference to an old bow- maybe it's all just mysterious mental mojo because I know that it's a piece of time-traveling history.

Or maybe it's just that a well made English style longbow of Yew inevitably feels & shoots this way.

Yew is unbelievably elastic stuff. A friend of mine who is a guitar builder got a bunch of old Yew staves to make lute ribs with (but he wouldn't sell me one to make a bow- some friend!). He gave me a Yew lute rib to play with- it was like a rubber band- I tied it in a knot, then let it just spring back to its original shape, undamaged.

I remember an "old school" gentlemen at our neighboring camp when I was a kid who would wear a bow tie and hounds tooth jacket squirrel hunting. Kinda odd but cool since most of were wearing WWII surplus camo.

Even today, If you ever find yourself invited to shoot at The Royal Toxophilite Society, you will be expected to wear a jacket and tie and The Woodmen of Arden still have a formal uniform for shooting

Interesting how the accepted apparel for shooting at the range is more "dressed up" than what most people wear to work these days!

Didn't Saxton Pope, Art Young, Chief Compton et. al. dress up (by our standards) even to go hunting & camping? Or was some of that for the photographs- still somewhat novel in those days.

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