Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Physical Culture
name: label: Creator
content: Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Physical Culture is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
creator: label: Creator
content: Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
setName: label: See more items in
content: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Physical Culture
abstract: label: Summary
content: A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Physical Culture forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Cubic foot (consisting of 2 boxes, 2 folders, 3 oversize folders.)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1795-1965
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Physical
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Ephemera
label: Type
content: Business ephemera
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: In 2016, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund, the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History implemented the use of minimal level processing standards to increase information about and facilitate access to more of our collections. 
            
A large portion of stored material from the original acquisition received minimal level processing, which resulted in additions to this Subject category. This effort included basic arrangement and replacement of non-archival housing for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed. Revisions to the encoded finding aid were made to reflect the added content in context to the previously processed material.

Minimal level processing and enhancement of the machine-readable finding aid completed by Nicole Blechynden, September 2017.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Ephemera
label: Genre/Form
content: Business ephemera
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This subject category- Physical Culture consists of material related to the various aspects of physical culture.  The materials contain information about physical culture and instructions for readers on how to improve their bodies.  Numerous images show how to perform exercises and images of healthy and unhealthy bodies.  This category contains information not only on the philosophy of physical culture but numerous items that illustrate the start of America's obsession with weight and body image and the commercialization of physical health.

Publications, Informational and Instructive consists of books, periodicals, and broadsides that were published to inform the public about physical culture, to direct readers in how to follow some aspect of physical culture, or both.  Though a portion of these items are related to specific exercise equipment or regiments, publications for the purpose of marketing an item or service are located in series two.  The majority of items in this series were published in New York, between 1890 and 1920; however there are also items from as early as 1854 and one item from 1940 as well as items from London, Philadelphia, Boston, and Battle Creek, Michigan.  Publications are in alphabetical order by author.

The subject most represented in this series is exercise with many items providing information on how to perform proper exercises through both written description and images.  The instructions are often different for men and women and many involve the use of various types of exercise equipment.  Other topics covered include nerves, breathing, massage, and many other tenants of physical culture.  Two volumes, The Body Beautiful and The Top Link, have instructions for properly performing everyday tasks such as sitting, standing, and breathing.  Two volumes, Health Culture and the Sanitary Woolen System and The Influence of Dress in Producing the Physical Decadence of American Women, focus on dress and its affect on the body, specifically the dangers of corsets and artificial fibers.  Manuel for Physical Measurements gives directions on how to measure the size and strength of various mussels.  Training in Theory and Practice is a general text providing information and instruction on almost all areas connected to physical culture. The latest publication, The Fifty Years in Business Magazine from 1940, contains an article about Bernarr Macfadden.

Advertisements is divided into four categories depending on what the advertisement is attempting to sell: exercise equipment, classes at physical culture institutions and schools, instruction in physical culture through books or by mail, and lectures on physical culture.  The items are mostly broadsides, letters, or pamphlets and the majority are illustrated, many in color.  Most items are from the 1890s and early 1900s with a large number from New York including all the physical culture schools.  Within each sub series the items are in alphabetical order by the company advertised.

Advertisements exists for numerous exercise machines, including many that are similar to machines seen today and some that are less familiar. Two machines, the Albany Normalizing School's Niles Normalizing Machine and the Sanitarium Equipment Company's Battle Creek Health Builder, use electricity to vibrate a belt placed against the body.  Other contraptions included The Cartilage Company's Cartilage Treatment which increases height, the Greenhut-Siegel Copper Company's Professor Charles Munter's Nulife, a garment that improves the wear's posture, and a vibrator from Shelton Electric Company.

Instruction is offered in massage, hydrotherapy, Swedish movements, and facial beauty culture, as well as general physical exercise and education.  In addition the advertisements from Macfadden Publications, Inc. and Physical Culture Publishing Company both include opportunities to become involved with the company itself, by purchasing stock or becoming a sales associate. The proposed benefits from the equipment and instructions cover a large range of topics including health, self respect, increased lifespan, youthfulness and for women a more attractive face and larger bust.

General Information includes an article from 1795 on the health benefits of massage as well as other newspaper articles about physical culture.  Images of various types depict the ideal male and female body.  Items are arranged by type, image or article, then by date.
relatedmaterial: label: Materials in the Archives Center
content: Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)
label: Forms Part Of
content: Forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.

Series 1: Business Ephemera

Series 2: Other Collection Divisions

Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers

Series 4: Photographic Reference Material