Hemenway Gymnasium, Harvard College
Hemenway Gymnasium, Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass. | Postmarked Mar 3, 1909 | Postcard
Hemenway Gymnasium at Harvard College is where African American gym teacher Edwin Bancroft Henderson learned the game of basketball during the summer of 1904 before returning to Washington, DC, where he taught the sport to his Black students in the city’s racially segregated school district.
Henderson was enrolled in Harvard’s Summer School of Physical Education completing a state-of-the-art physical training program taught by physical fitness and education pioneer Dudley Allen Sargent, which offered courses such as Elementary Fencing, Swedish Free Exercises, Gymnastic Games, Voice Training, Swimming, and Basket-ball. Booker T. Washington had been in the same program in 1887, except basketball was not yet included.
The structure was demolished in 1938 and replaced by a new Hemenway Gymnasium at the same location that now serves as the Harvard Law School’s fitness center.
(Black Fives Foundation Archives)
