Happy National Walking Day!
Pedestrianism, a form of competitive walking, became popular in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Britain and Ireland, and spread in the United States.
Racers walked for hundreds of miles around a track in six-day races and the one who walked the furthest distance was the winner. In the United States, watching people walk was the most popular spectator sport in the late 1880s.
Edward Payson Weston (1839–1929) was an American pedestrian. He became famous when he walked 478 miles from Boston, Massachusetts to Washington, D.C. in 10 days and 10 hours, from February 22 to March 4 in 1861. During the walk, he faced snow, rain, and mud, fell several times, and ate while walking.
This portrait is entitled, “Edward Payson Weston Walking from Portland to Chicago.” It must be from 1867 when he covered over 1,200 miles in 26 days. He won a prize of $10,000, but also received several death threats from gamblers who bet against him. He lived to be 90 years old.
We have many other portraits of pedestrians like Weston in our collection of Portraits of boxers and other athletes!
Edward Payson Weston walking from Portland to Chicago
Kellog & Bulkeley, printer.
43cmx33cm
Harvard Fine Arts Library, Special Collections VSCO230.00310 VSCO230
HOLLIS number: olvwork734269
