Senda Berenson Abbott

Abbott was born as Senda Valvrojenski to Albert and Judith Valvrojenski in Butrimonys, Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire to a Lithuanian Jewish family, who would immigrate to the United States when she was seven years old.[5] Her older brother was Bernard Berenson, and she would later have another younger brother and two younger sisters.[6] Her father Albert grew up following an educational track of classical Jewish learning and contemplated becoming a rabbi. However, he became a practitioner of Haskalah, a European movement which advocated more integration of Jews into secular society. After his home and lumber business were burned to the ground, he lived with his more traditionalist in-laws who pressured him to enroll Bernard with a Hebrew and Aramaic tutor. He decided to move to the United States to raise his family according to his own beliefs, moving alone in 1874 to the West End of Boston. He became a "poor peddler of pots and pans", selling his wares in nearby towns. Albert changed his surname to Berenson soon after his arrival as part of his "Westernization".[7] After months of work, he sent for his family in 1875.[8]

Albert insisted that the family speak only English, stopped attending synagogue, and attempted to sever ties to their Jewish traditions.[7] Despite this, his children did not fully abandon their faith. Bernard described himself as Jewish and continued to practice some rituals, though he did not have a Bar Mitzvah. The family had moved to a section of Boston with almost fifty families from their original neighborhood, some of whom were relatives, so they grew up with religious influences.[6] After her brother attended the Boston Latin School, he moved to Cambridge to prepare to enroll at Harvard. Since she and her brother were close, Senda spent part of her mid-teens in Cambridge.[7][9] Following his graduation from Harvard, Bernard moved to Europe, eventually settling in Italy, where he began a career as an art critic.[7]

Senda Berenson in 1888

Senda did not have much interest in athletics as a child and preferred music, literature, and art. She was "frail and delicate" in her childhood, which interfered with her schooling.[10] She was partially home-schooled by her father and attended Boston Latin Academy (then known as Girl's Latin School), but did not graduate.[7] She briefly attended the Boston Conservatory of Music, but health issues forced her to leave the school.[11] She had tried painting and the piano, but her health limited both; she was unable to keep up the practice.[12] Senda moved out of the house and began a relationship with a man named David. However, Bernard was not yet self-sufficient, and Senda would send him money on a regular basis. She ended up moving back home, for what were "probably economic reasons".[13] The relationship with David was serious enough to prompt a proposal of marriage, but Senda declined and they amicably ended their relationship near the end of 1888.[14]

Her health continued to deteriorate, forcing her to give up her piano lessons at the Conservatory due to her back problems. She slowed her writing to her brother, who worried about her health, and urged her to take a summer in the country. That refreshed her temporarily and she re-enrolled at the Conservatory, but she was unable to keep it up, and fell into a long depression that extended into 1890.[15]

Mary Hemenway was a philanthropist in Boston who had many interests, both within Boston and elsewhere. In 1867, Hemenway was funding many Reconstruction Era schools in the South, where she met Amy Morris Homans, a nineteen-year old who had traveled to work in the schools. When Hemenway returned to Boston, Homans returned with her as her executive secretary.[16] In 1887, Hemenway founded the Boston Normal School of Cooking. The following year, she provided instruction to one hundred Boston school teachers in a system of gymnastics education known as the Swedish system.[17] At the time, the predominant form of physical education was a German style of gymnastics, with an emphasis on strength training and competitiveness.[15] In 1889, Hemenway funded and Homans arranged a conference on physical training, which had national influence on the course of physical education in schools. The conference "is considered by most historians to be pivotal in the development of American physical education".[18]

Wool serge gymnasium suit with blouse, sailor collar and bloomer-style trousers, ca. 1915

In that same year, Hemenway created the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics with Homans as its first director.[19] The school drew faculty from several resources, including the Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics, founded by Pehr Henrik Ling in Sweden, as well as faculty from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Psychology was taught by Harvard's Josiah Royce.[20] Later, the school would become Department of Hygiene and Physical Education at Wellesley College.[17]

Berenson learned about the School of Gymnastics from a friend and decided to enroll briefly to improve her physical condition so that she could return to the Conservatory.[21] However, the entrance requirements included high school graduation or equivalent, and Berenson hadn't graduated from Boston Latin Academy. In addition, the entrants were expected to be in satisfactory physical condition, which was not Berenson's case. Berenson met with Homans, and Homans took a liking to her and felt that her physical condition could be improved and that the result might serve as a testament to the schools approach. Homans decided to admit Berenson. The school offered a two-tier teacher training course and a one-year certificate course; Berenson enrolled in the one-year program.[22]

Berenson's start was inauspicious. Years later she would exclaim "how I hated that school for the first few months!". She wasn't interested in the gymnastics work, as the exercises made her "ache all over". Early on, just standing erect for five minutes forced her to lie down, and she found she had to study lying on her back.[21] She decided to give the exercises a "fair trial", and she saw improvement in three months. By the end of the year, she was doing the prescribed two hours a day of exercise and felt much better.[23] Her brother was disappointed to hear that she had not returned to the Conservatory but did not fully comprehend how much she had improved at the gymnastics school. Berenson decided to enroll at the school for a second year.[24]

Berenson's condition improved so markedly that Homans sent her to the elementary school in Andover to teach the headmaster and faculty about the Swedish theory of gymnastics. Berenson made twice-weekly visits to the school. This first attempt at teaching proved so successful that, when Homans learned of a temporary opening due to the illness of a teacher at Smith College, she recommended that Berenson consider it, even though she had not completed her second year.[11][24][25] The previous gymnastics instructor had been Grace Watson, another Boston Normal School of Gymnastics alumna who had started there in 1891 to head the Swedish gymnastics program. Miss Watson left Smith in January 1892 as a result of an illness, and died November 24, 1892.[26] Berenson would later be described as a "missionary" referring to her strong support for the inclusion of physical education in the lives of the students. This characterization was intriguing for two reasons:

1. less than two years earlier, her physical condition would not even permit her to play the piano for long stretches
2. her position was expected to be temporary, making it all that more unusual that she would push her beliefs so forcefully.[24]

Perhaps her own improvement, which she attributed to the Swedish gymnastics, led her to the belief that her experience could be transferred to others. She promoted physical education outside of Smith College as well. The local high school Northampton High School experimented with the Swedish system of gymnastics under her direction in 1892.[27] She also introduced Swedish exercise and games such as basketball to the inmates at the Northampton Lunatic Asylum.[28]

Exterior of Alumnae Gymnasium at Smith College. The upper windows look into the gymnasium where the first women's basketball games were played in 1892

Berenson arrived at a school with well-equipped facilities. The school had recently completed the Alumnae Gymnasium in 1890, which provided some of the best facilities in the country for college women.[29] Although the physical facilities were in fine shape, the notion that women should engage in physical exercise, much less be required to do so, was not then well-established. The prevailing atmosphere did not support the notion that women should engage in physical activity. Berenson would write, in 1894,

Until recent years, the so-called ideal woman was a small waisted, small footed, small brained damsel, who prided herself on her delicate health, who thought fainting interesting, and hysterics fascinating.

Berenson sought to establish mandatory physical education in this atmosphere.[30] She spent considerable time presenting her position to the faculty and administration. One meeting began with only one faculty member was in agreement, but by the meeting's end, she had persuaded the faculty to support a mandatory second year of physical education. While Berenson saw the need to persuade the faculty, she naively thought the students were more supportive. She had heard that some of the students felt the exercises were too boring, but she had six classes each day filled with "enthusiastic girls". Because of the evident enthusiasm, she decided it would not be necessary to take attendance. However, when she reached the end of the school year and was provided a complete roster for the purpose of recording grades, she realized that many students had never come to class. She instituted roll call the following year.[31]

The 1915 edition of the rules as edited by Berenson

Berenson was pleased with the reception to the game but felt some changes were needed. She thought the game had a "tendency to roughness", so she sat down with her class to discuss how to modify the rules.[43] She divided the court into three regions and prohibited players from leaving their assigned region. Players could not dribble more than three times, hold the ball for more than three seconds, or snatch the ball from an opponent.[44][45]

The Division of Girls' and Women's Sports of the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation felt the need for a written set of rules specifically applicable to the women's game and asked Berenson to undertake a publication outlining the rules.[46] Berenson formalized her rules into a set of official rules – Line Basketball or Basket Ball for Women, often referred to as Basket Ball for Women.[47][1] In 1901, the Spalding Library published the rules with Berenson as editor and would continue to publish them for eighteen years. Berenson organized the United States Basket Ball Committee in 1905, where she served as chairman until 1917.[48] The rules would remain in use with only minor modification until the 1960s.[44]

This is a diagram of the basketball court in use for women's basketball consistent with rules adopted in 1899.

Berenson viewed the sport as "a complete educational experience" and did not allow players to play if they failed in subjects; the importance of education was paramount. Players were required to wear their hair in braids or ribbons to maintain a tidy appearance. In addition to physical development, she felt the game helped players develop intellectually and emotionally via decision making and the following of the rules. She encouraged her students to suggest alternative rules or different methods of play to improve the game. She encouraged responsibility by naming captains, who helped serve as coaches for the players.[49]

• Grundy, Pamela (2005). Shattering the glass. New Press. ISBN 978-1-56584-822-1.
• Hult, Joan S.; Trekell, Marianna (1991). A Century of women's basketball : from frailty to final four. Reston, Va: National Association for Girls and Women in Sport. ISBN 978-0-88314-490-9.
• Melnick, Ralph (2007). Senda Berenson : the unlikely founder of women's basketball. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1-55849-568-5.
• Porter, David L., ed. (2005). Basketball: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-30952-6.
• Seelye, Laurenus Clark (1923). The Early History of Smith College. Houghton Miflin Company.
• Siedentop, Daryl (2009). Introduction to physical education, fitness, and sport (PDF). Boston: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-337651-6. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 2, 2013.
• Stillman, Agnes CoraRuth (1971). Senda Berenson Abbott, her life and contributions to Smith College and the physical Education profession. Northampton, Massachusetts: Master's Thesis, presented to the Faculty of the Department of Physical Education, Smith College. OCLC 909414.