Coulter was a vaudeville strongman, author, and collector. As his vaudeville days came to a close, he moved into supporting and documenting competitive weightlifting. Along with George Jowett, he helped form the first weightlifting association in the United States (see the Coulter-Jowett Correspondence Finding Aid below), the American Continental Weight Lifting Association (ACWLA) and accumulated...
Judy Gedney, a retired college professor, has been involved in powerlifting as a competitor and administrator since the late 1970s and has won many national and world championships and set many national and world records in the sport.
Joe Weider is the most successful publisher of weight training/fitness magazines in the 20th century. He began his publishing career in 1940 with Your Physique and went on to launch many other magazines, including Muscle Power, Muscle & Fitness, Flex, Shape, and Men’s Fitness. He also had a successful food supplement business and, with his...
Eliason was a gym owner in the 1930s and 1940s, a writer, a collector, and a lifelong physical culturist and organic gardener who also promoted bodybuilding and weightlifting competitions in the New England area.
Retired University of Missouri journalism professor and Bernarr Macfadden scholar, Taft collected an amazing array of research materials on Bernarr Macfadden.
Professional strongman Louis Attila trained Sandow, moved to America in 1893, and opened a gym in New York City. His son-in-law, Siegmund Klein, took over the gym in the 1920s and managed it until 1974.
Johnnie Lee Macfadden was Bernarr Macfadden’s last wife, a beauty expert, and a columnist.
Dr. Gehman worked as an editor for Bernarr Macfadden in the 1920s, wrote one of the earliest books warning of the dangers of cigarette smoke (Smoke Over America) in the 1930s, and served as president of both the American Vegetarian Union and the American Naturopathic Society. He was a discerning collector of early naturopathic and...
Christopher Gian-Cursio was a naturopathic doctor, nutritionist, author, editor, and researcher. The collection reflects Gian-Cursio’s professional career as a practicing Natural Hygienist and his extensive research into the development and pioneers of the health movement in America, especially James Jackson’s “Our Home on the Hillside” Hygienic Institute in Dansville, N.Y. Also included in the collection...
