In the 1900s, there was a crisis of masculinity across the United States and Europe. The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century had led to incredible changes in life and work, and many men wondered at their place in the world. What did it mean to be a man? What did masculinity look like? In this changing world, how were men meant to act?

Men working a wheat field in Nebraska, 1910.

In 1800, the typical man in the United States worked at home. Not in the work-from-home sense we know today, but rather they worked for themselves in an agrarian or agricultural environment. He might have worked a trade like blacksmithing or as a tailor who makes clothes, but he would not be working for a large company. Child labor was common but within the context of the home. Children would do farm work or house work alongside their mother, father, and siblings.

Workers leaving a factory in Finland, 1909.

By 1900, the typical man in the United States was employed in a large factory. The population had shifted from farms or small towns to cities. This man would be working long hours. Child labor laws meant that children were at school or home with their mother or grandmother. More and more often, the father would be the main “breadwinner” earning wages outside of the home. Men had long been seen as the “masters” of the home, but what happens when the master is away for most of the day? But the working class was only part of the picture. More and more, middle class men were working in offices and doing what we would now call white-collar jobs that didn’t require physical strength to perform.

Portrait of boxer “Philadelphia Jack” O'Brien, 1905.

In addition to economic changes brought on by industrialization, there was a general concern that men were becoming weak and overcivilized, especially with the enclosure of the Wild West. “Were men becoming too feminine?” they worried. Teddy Roosevelt spoke often about his concern that men were growing soft and needed a more “strenuous life” in order to keep the United States strong. But what did that look like?

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, interest in sports grew enormously. Boxing and body building were especially popular. Boxing, which had been seen as a seedy, underground venture, was professionalized in the late nineteenth century and drew enormous crowds. Some of the earliest silent films were of famous boxing matches.

A 19th century strongman, Fred Winters, doing a bent press using a circus dumbbell, 1904.

An advertisement for the Leonard-Cushing Fight, 1894.

Louis Cyr ready to restrain horses, 1891.

Strongmen would do incredible feats such as lifting 80 kilos with two fingers or holding back two revving cars like French strongman Apollon the Mighty. In front of a crowd of over 10,000 people, French Canadian strongman Louis Cyr resisted the pull of four draught horses as the horses pulled against him.

Sports and fitness became incredibly important to maintaining masculinity. Sports began to be incorporated into public schools as well as universities. Rules were codified including those for rugby, cricket, swimming, American football, and more. The predecessor to the National Football League, the Ohio League was formed in 1902.

Native American football player Jim Thorpe tackling a dummy during training, 1912.