Sandow's Spring Grip Dumb-Bell
date: label: date made
content: ca 1900
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Sandow's Spring Grip Dumb-Bell, a strength training tool with its original metal box. The dumbbell consists of seven springs surrounded by a handle. There are screws at each end that hold the dumbbell together. The dumbbell was squeezed together for hand strengthening exercises. The metal box has a red and white label printed on the top surface with illustrations of Sandow’s arm, the dumbbell, and, printed at the top, “SUPPLIED TO KING EDWARD VII By Royal Letters Patent.”
label: Description (Brief)
content: Eugen Sandow was a pioneering bodybuilder and showman known as “the father of modern bodybuilding." Born Friedrich Wilhelm Müller in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad) in 1867, he joined the circus to avoid military service and traveled Europe as a strongman. He adapting his mother’s Russian maiden name Sandov to take the stage name Euden Sandow. Under the mentorship of bodybuilder Ludwig Durlacher (also known as Louis Attila), Sandow excelled in strongman competitions and began touring as a headlining stage performer, posing to reveal his physique and performing feats of strength. Showman and impresario Forenz Ziegfeld began managing Sandow and helped refine his performance, making him an international star with appearances at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, in early Thomas Edison films, and on increasingly prominent stages. By the late 1890s, Sandow began advocating for physical fitness, opening Institutes of Physical Culture where he encouraged improved diet and exercise, sponsored gymnasia, began publishing health books and the periodical Physical Culture, and marketed licensed exercise equipment. In 1901 he organized the first international bodybuilding competition, held at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Sandow’s exercise instruction and advocacy for strength training sparked a physical fitness revolution that resonated with turn-of-the-century American fears of overcivilization and declining virility.
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London, City of London
topic: label: web subject
content: Sports
label: name of sport
content: fitness
label: level of sport
content: recreational
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
label: Exhibition
content: Entertainment Nation
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2001.0179.01
label: accession number
content: 2001.0179
label: catalog number
content: 2001.0179.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: dumbbell, fitness
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: organic material (unspecified) (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paint (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: iron (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 18 cm x 16 cm x 6.5 cm; 7 3/32 in x 6 5/16 in x 2 9/16 in
label: Measurements
content: container: 7 in x 6 1/4 in x 3 1/4 in; 17.78 cm x 15.875 cm x 8.255 cm
label: Measurements
content: part: weight: 6 5/8 in x 3 in x 2 in; 16.8275 cm x 7.62 cm x 5.08 cm