This sequence of photographs from a 1905 edition of the Italian journal La Stampa Sportiva is clearly based on Marcus Tindal’s amusing and eccentric article Self-Protection on a Cycle (1901), which may in turn have been inspired by this letter published in the London Bicycle Club Gazette in 1901.
Artist Pablo Helguera’s Addams-Dewey Gymnasium was part of the Art Institute of Chicago’s recent exhibition, titled A Proximity of Consciousness:
The gymnasium invites visitors to engage in turn-of-the-century exercises designed to promote health and foster a connection between the mind and the body. In the piece, Helguera transports the educational philosophies of activist Jane Addams and educational reformer John Dewey into a contemporary art exhibition, inviting participants to reflect on the impact of two of the most influential thinkers on education.
The exhibition featured practical classes in circa 1900 physical culture exercises and also an array of antique exercise paraphernalia, including an exercise bike, rowing machine and a woman’s gymnastics dress borrowed from the Forteza Gymuseum collection.
Readers may recall our April, 2013 article presenting the “Dr. Latson Method of Self Defense” and the bizarre scandal and mystery that later enveloped the principals of that method.
Now, researcher Maxime Chouinard has tracked down an article featuring most of those photographs, plus one additional image, that appeared in the June 11, 1911 edition of the Denver Post. Visit his blog to read When a Thug Attacks You, and ponder; this anonymous article was published two months after Dr. Latson’s mysterious death.
This short story from the Suffrajitsu.com website introduces Anglo-Chinese socialite and amateur detective Judith Lee and describes her first encounter with Mrs. Pankhurst’s Amazons. The Bartitsu Club and several of its principal figures play important roles in the story …
Reporter Cassam Looch attends the Kingsman: The Secret Service academy where he learns how to become the perfect Kingsman agent, including a suit fitting followed by an umbrella combat lesson with Bartitsu instructor James Marwood.
You can also watch parts 1 and 3 of this tie-in with the upcoming feature film Kingsman: The Secret Service, opening in the UK on January 29 and thereafter internationally.
Issue #1 of the Bartitsu-themed action/adventure graphic novel trilogy Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst’s Amazons is now available!
Preview/purchase Suffrajitsu #1 at Amazon.com
Preview/purchase Suffrajitsu #1 at comiXology
Set against the dramatic backdrop of the radical women’s rights movement in London just prior to the First World War, Suffrajitsu relates the adventures of Miss Persephone Wright and her elite team of Amazons – a secret society of Bartitsu-trained bodyguards who protect fugitive suffragette leaders from arrest and assault.
Persephone is the niece of Bartitsu founder Edward William Barton-Wright, who also features in the story, and his Shaftesbury Avenue gymnasium serves as the Amazons’ secret headquarters …
Suffrajitsu was written by author and Bartitsu instructor Tony Wolf, illustrated by Joao Vieira and is published by Jet City Comics. See our sister site, Suffrajitsu.com, for more information, including the strange-but-true history of the real suffragette Bodyguard society.
The release of Kingsman: the Secret Service promises to introduce a new generation of film-goers to the weaponised umbrella, a time-tested motif in anime, comic books, film, literature and television. The bulletproof Kingsman umbrella comes equipped with all manner of gadgets, from a stunning projectile launcher to a TASER bola.
However, while this fictional high-tech development in defensive bumbershootery is undoubtedly impressive, it is well worth noting that there has been a hundred-plus year history of attempts to weaponise the humble brolly in real life. These have included the development of martial arts techniques as well as the invention of actual, combat-augmented umbrellas.
As early as 1838, the Baron Charles de Berenger suggested several ingenious methods for using an umbrella in defence against highwaymen and ruffians, including simply shooting straight through it with a flintlock pistol:
In 1897, J.F. Sullivan proposed the umbrella as a misunderstood weapon in his tongue-in-cheek article for the Ludgate Monthy.
Only a few years later, Bartitsu founder E.W. Barton-Wright took the subject seriously in his two-part article series for Pearson’s Magazine, explaining the use of the umbrella and walking stick in self defence. The cane/umbrella were considered the first line of defence in the Bartitsu arsenal, which also included boxing, wrestling and jujitsu.
After the London Bartitsu Club closed under mysterious circumstances in 1902, instructors Pierre Vigny and his wife, who is known to us only as “Miss Sanderson”, continued to teach the use of umbrellas and parasols as defensive weapons. By 1908 the concept had made its way to the United States, being taught at the Philadelphia Institute of Physical Culture and featured in Popular Mechanics Magazine.
The remainder of the 20th century has seen the use of umbrellas as weapons of assassination:
… as well as numerous developments of the “umbrella sword” motif:
… and, of course, the Unbreakable Umbrella:
French news reports during mid-2011 suggested that the bodyguards of then-president Nicolas Sarkozy would soon be carrying a new defensive weapon – the Para Pactum umbrella. Reinforced with kevlar, the Para Pactum has apparently been tested against attack dogs and is also proof against knives, acid and thrown projectiles.
