Research

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The H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports is the permanent home of the world’s most extensive collection of materials on physical culture and sports.

This outstanding collection is the result of Drs. Jan and Terry Todd’s determination to identify and preserve the books, journals, ephemera, and artifacts that illustrate the history, development, and current status of physical fitness and self-improvement.

Of course, the reason for preserving this material is so that scholars, researchers, students – anyone  – can use to explore our past in order to better understand our present and future.  Click here for a list of individuals, and their publications, who have done just that.

“Research” can be defined in so many ways: sitting in a reading room perusing manuscripts, reviewing the body of work of a specific scholar, keyword searching in a database.  Below is an overview of the variety of research tools available at the Stark Center.  If you are not sure where to start, email or call us; we’re happy to talk through our resources with you.

If you plan to visit us, please read our policies for visiting researchers.